\n<\/p>\n
At the height of the superhero boom a few years ago, Disney pushed its Marvel assembly lines to run faster and faster. After awhile, quality suffered and ticket sales declined.<\/p>\n
So Disney slowed the pace. Last year, Marvel released one movie (the megasuccessful<\/a> \u201cDeadpool & Wolverine\u201d) and two Disney+ series. To compare, in 2021 Marvel churned out four movies (with mixed results) and five Disney+ series.<\/p>\n Factory problem fixed?<\/p>\n Maybe: Marvel\u2019s \u201cCaptain America: Brave New World\u201d was a runaway No. 1 at the global box office over the weekend. The movie, which cost at least $300 million to make and market worldwide, was on pace to sell roughly $84 million in tickets from Thursday through Sunday in the United States and Canada, according to box office analysts. Moviegoers overseas were poised to chip in another $100 million or so.<\/p>\n Maybe not: \u201cBrave New World\u201d received the Marvel Cinematic Universe\u2019s lowest-ever grade (B-minus) from ticket buyers in CinemaScore exit polls. Reviews were only 50 percent positive, according to Rotten Tomatoes, which resulted in a \u201crotten\u201d rating from the site. Just two Marvel movies rank lower<\/a> on the Rotten Tomatoes meter, and both quickly ran out of box office steam after No. 1 starts that were driven by die-hard fans and marketing bombast.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Those films were \u201cEternals,\u201d 47 percent positive, which had $86 million in opening-weekend sales in 2021, after adjusting for inflation; and \u201cAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,\u201d 46 percent, which arrived to $113 million over three days in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cQuantumania\u201d was directed by the Marvel veteran Peyton Reed. In every other instance where a Marvel movie has struggled either critically or commercially (or both), the director has had little to no experience with sprawling franchise movies, let alone superheroes. Julius Onah directed \u201cBrave New World.\u201d His prior feature film r\u00e9sum\u00e9 consisted of two low-budget thrillers and \u201cThe Cloverfield Paradox,\u201d a Netflix movie that cost $45 million.<\/p>\n \u201cBrave New World\u201d stars Anthony Mackie as Captain America, a role that Chris Evans played in numerous Marvel movies from 2011 to 2019. Mr. Mackie joined what is known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2014, when he played a winged superhero called the Falcon in \u201cCaptain America: The Winter Soldier.\u201d In 2021, his character took over as Captain America in the final episode of the Disney+ series \u201cFalcon and the Winter Soldier.\u201d<\/p>\n Harrison Ford stars in \u201cBrave New World\u201d as a power-crazed U.S. president who turns into Red Hulk, wrecking havoc in the government and society.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n