TheQuartering [10/27/2023]

According to GiantFreakingRobot:

Thanks more to offscreen shenanigans than anything else, the Captain Marvel movie ended up generating plenty of controversy and was subsequently review-bombed on popular sites such as Rotten Tomatoes. Now, the following post on X (formerly known as Twitter) has confirmed that Disney effectively has a review embargo in place for The Marvels, the follow-up Captain Marvel adventure that will team this cosmic character with popular teen superhero Ms. Marvel. While it’s possible that the House of Mouse is trying to sidestep another round of review-bombing, there is also a serious chance the movie is a mess and they wish to hide that fact as long as possible.

As you can tell from these dates, it will be entirely possible for fans to read various critics’ reviews ahead of The Marvels coming out, but it’s a very narrow window: the reviews drop on November 8, and the film officially releases on Friday, November 10.

However, diehard Marvel fans are likelier to preorder their tickets ahead of time to watch the film as early as Thursday, November 9 in most locations. Put it together and it really does look like Disney wants to get as many pre-order tickets for The Marvels as possible before negative reviews fully kill the already-tepid momentum of this film.

We say the momentum is tepid because right now, the box office projections for The Marvels are looking quite grim. According to Deadline, the sequel is expected to gross somewhere between $75 to $80 million dollars in its opening weekend. In comparison, that’s about half of what Captain Marvel brought in during its first weekend, and if The Marvels starts this slow, it is unlikely to earn over a billion dollars at the box office the way its predecessor did.