Since the end of The Multiverse Saga, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has not been doing well. Kevin Feige can nevertheless rejoice, since Deadpool & Wolverine has just put an end to what increasingly looked like a curse.
Deadpool 3: a huge success that hides an admission of failure?
SinceAvengers: Endgame(2019), The Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to have lost much of its appeal. While a few films and series have reminded us that there could be inventiveness and creativity within the MCU, such as the series WandaVision (2021) and the film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) by James Gunn, the license is increasingly criticized. The resounding failures of Black Widow (2021), She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022), Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania (2023) and The Marvels (2023) have contributed to superhero fatigue, but above all to making Marvel a less lucrative license than it was throughout the 2010s. Proof of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's poor media health: The only film to have exceeded the billion dollars at the box office since the beginning of Phase 4 is Spider-Man: No Way Home, which could count on the reunion of the three iterations of Peter Parker in the cinema (Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland) to obtain the 1.9 billion dollars of receipts that it poses, and this despite the strong criticisms with regard to its ultimately rather empty scenario and its uninventive staging. Several films that should have been blockbusters, such as Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), failed to cross the billion-dollar mark, while others were universally vilified despite encouraging financial results. One thinks in particular of Thor: Love and Thunder(2022) and its $761 million in revenue.
Also, the exceptional success of Deadpool & Wolverine, released in theaters on July 24, has something to give hope, since the film has just passed the symbolic billion dollar mark at the box office (with $1,029,531,382), becoming the first Marvel film to achieve this feat since Spider-Man: No Way Home three years earlier. Above all, it is for the moment the second biggest success of the year after Inside Out 2from Pixar studio (also under license from Disney), which has already grossed $1.5 billion, making it the highest-grossing animated film in animated cinema – and possibly the first to surpass $2 billion. Above all, Deadpool & Wolverinecould become the highest-grossing R-rated film worldwide in the coming days, surpassing Todd Phillips' Joker (2019) and its $1.078 billion.
If Deadpool & Wolverinehas the potential to exceed $2 billion at the box office by the end of its run, this financial success ultimately poorly hides an admission of failure< /strong>. Indeed, what a film praising the legacy of 21st Century Fox superhero films (X-Men, Blade, Elektra) to the detriment of MCU films, which are often neglected. by its impertinent hero, works so well in theaters should question the management of Marvel and Disney. On the other hand, the exceptional success of Deadpool & Wolverineis largely based on the popularity of Wolverine. of the character, on the return of Wolverine, and on the fame of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, who carry their characters on their shoulders instead of Marvel Studios, even in the promotion of the film. Deadpool & Wolverineseems much more like their film than it did today. them as that of Kevin Feige… And to discover this easter egg which teased the return of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom inAvengers: Doomsday, it's here.