It's a tough time to make it in the entertainment industry. With so much choice, an insane amount of competition and extremely high expectations, movies and TV shows that may have been hits in previous years are struggling to reach larger audiences these days. However, there is another side to that story, as projects from days gone by that flopped at the box office can now reach newer, wider audiences on streaming platforms. Sometimes it can be all down to the algorithm (just ask Elektra!).
It can be a double-edged sword trying to make it in today's day and age. Even veteran hitmakers struggle from time-to-time, and yes that extends to the undisputed champions of the box office in Marvel Studios. Throughout the 2010s, any project released as part of the juggernaut Marvel Cinematic Universe was a guaranteed success, with takings between almost always $400 million and $1 billion guaranteed.
In recent years, the franchise has seen a number of underperformers. From Eternals to even the slight underperformance of this summer's The Fantastic Four: First Steps, it's not as easy for the franchise to produce sure-fire hits. There is one in particular that certainly didn't deserve that fate as it received overwhelmingly positive responses from audiences around the world. Thankfully, it's quickly become a streaming success story.
Thunderbolts* finds streaming success in first weeks on Disney Plus
After months of anticipation, Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts* arrived on Disney Plus last month. The film made people wait for its arrival, as it now holds the record for the longest wait for an MCU movie on the platform, showing up 120 days after its theatrical premiere. To say it was worth the wait would be an understatement. And now, audiences are flocking to watch it on the streamer.
Within 24 hours of its release, the Marvel movie had placed itself atop the daily Disney Plus chart in the No. 1 spot in various locations around the world, including the US and the UK. It then held onto the top spot for over a week and only fell into the No. 2 spot when Lilo and Stitch made its debut on the platform. Days later, it has remained in the No. 2 position worldwide and, according to FlixPatrol, there isn't that much between the Top 2. The two summer blockbusters are also extremely far ahead of anything else on the streaming service right now.
That's very impressive, especially as Thunderbolts* isn't too far away from Lilo and Stich. The latter is the only US movie this year to reach the $1 billion mark at the box office, so in terms of successes this year, it's right at the top. By comparison, Thunderbolts* made $382 million during its theatrical release and, arguably, had its legs cut short by Lilo and Stitch's juggernaut debut. The fact that it's reportedly holding its own against the biggest movie of the year is a really strong sign of the film's popularity - which is the vote of confidence that it needs after its underperformance at the box office.
After a number of critical and commercial failures at the box office, Thunderbolts* received critical acclaim ahead its theatrical release. There was hope that this fan-favorite spectacle would benefit from the positive word-of-mouth, but its box office run ran out of steam due to the stacked early summer months. It also didn't help that the budget (along with marketing costs) was too high for a film that didn't feature any of the typical mainstream Marvel heroes.
Thunderbolts* gets justice it deserves with new life on Disney Plus
Thunderbolts* cost $180 million to make, along with $100 million for marketing. Therefore it needed to make around $425 million in its box office run to break even. It finished just shy of the $400 million mark. Certainly not a major flop by any stretch of the imagination and that is money that Marvel Studios will likely earn back via merchandise sales, the film's home media release, and its digital release too, but it's still an underperformance that the movie didn't deserve.
Between the increased competition, the general slow fatigue towards superhero movies, and Marvel's dilution of its own brand with lacklustre movies (and spreading itself too thin via too many movies and Disney Plus shows), Thunderbolts* faced an uphill battle. It didn't deserve to be the movie to suffer that fate (especially when there have been worse Marvel movies that performed better), but that's a clear indicator that Marvel needs to restore fans' faith in it after some missteps. The Fantastic Four: First Steps underperformed slightly, but it's still going to turn a profit and, considering the positive response to both it and Thunderbolts*, that faith is starting to be rebuilt.
The strong performance of Thunderbolts* on Disney Plus is another clear sign that there is still a major appetite for these movies. And that's a good thing because, at 88% on Rotten Tomatoes (with a 93% audience score), it goes without saying that the film was a fan-favorite, so it deserved better than the box office performance it had. As this was less of a Thunderbolts* problem and more of a state of Marvel / the industry as a whole problem, we're glad that the film is enjoying newfound success on streaming. It's what the New Avengers deserve!
You can stream Thunderbolts* on Disney Plus now!