Prequels that missed the mark, a way too cerebral monster movie, and a universally despised flick that its star called "AI-generated." Marvel may be the studio behind many blockbuster superhero movies, but it's also churned out some real duds.
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00:00Prequels that missed the mark, a way-too-cerebral monster movie, and a universally despised
00:06flick that its star called AI-generated, Marvel may be the studio behind many blockbuster
00:11superhero movies, but it's also churned out some real duds.
00:16Even if you've never seen it, odds are you're aware of how utterly awful Howard the Duck
00:20truly is.
00:21The film was an ambitious attempt at adapting an obscure Marvel Comics character into live
00:25action, and it did have a lot going for it.
00:28With everything from the work of industrial light and magic to an excellent cast, the
00:32film should have worked.
00:33The main problem with Howard the Duck that's difficult to overcome is that it tries too
00:38hard to be a comedy.
00:39No more Mr. Nice Duck.
00:41On top of that, it includes several aspects of the characters that aren't pleasant to
00:46watch, specifically the taboo romance and obvious attraction between Howard and Beverly,
00:51played by Lea Thompson.
00:52Add to that the overt silliness of the plot, which was overshadowed by the impressive special
00:57effects.
00:58Unfortunately, the result was a $37 million film that only raked in $37.9 million at the
01:04global box office.
01:06Daredevil wasn't the greatest adaptation of the character, but the film made money.
01:10So the studio went forward with Elektra two years later.
01:14Jennifer Garner's portrayal of the character in Daredevil suggested she'd be able to carry
01:18her own film, but it didn't happen.
01:20While Garner's work in Elektra is good, she was hampered by a terrible script.
01:25The best actors in the world cannot overcome crummy dialogue, terrible plot lines, and
01:29cheesy characters, which is what you have in Elektra.
01:32The film was panned by critics and audiences alike, so the $57 million box office take
01:37was barely enough to scratch the surface of its $43 million budget.
01:42The MCU's Phase 4 failed to build on the hype generated by Avengers Endgame, but to be fair,
01:47that's a tough hill to climb.
01:49Regardless, Marvel Studios tried several series on Disney+, and a number of movies, which
01:54didn't work as well as the studio would have liked.
01:56Ant-Man and the Wasp's Quantumania is one such film, and while it made a decent amount
02:01of cash, it wasn't enough.
02:03Marvel spent a ton of money bringing Quantumania to theaters.
02:06The film's production budget, which was initially set at $200 million, exploded to a staggering
02:12$326 million, nearly as much as Endgame.
02:16While the film made $476 million, that wasn't enough for the studio to break even.
02:21Part of the reason Quantumania failed was because it attempted to emulate the humorous
02:25aspects of director Taika Waititi's take on the Thor franchise.
02:29No, I don't have a phone, but you could have sent an electronic letter.
02:33It's called an email.
02:34Yeah, do you have a computer?
02:35No, what for?
02:36On top of that, Quantumania crammed way too much into its confusing plot.
02:40Its major villain was played by an actor with some very real legal problems, and it was
02:44heavily criticized for its VFX, despite the cost.
02:49Sony's ownership of the film rights to Spider-Man and his associated characters has made adapting
02:53the comics somewhat hit or miss.
02:56Marvel Studios forged an agreement to bring Spidey to the MCU, but many of his allies
03:00and enemies remain in Sony's Spider-Verse.
03:03One such character, Michael Morbius, found his way to live action in 2022.
03:08Morbius features Jared Leto in the title role, but the results weren't great.
03:12The film's script wasn't up to par with comparable MCU films.
03:15This included poorly choreographed fights, problematic pacing, and a heavy reliance
03:20on CGI particle effects, which make those fight sequences nearly impossible to follow.
03:25Morbius made $167 million on a $75 million budget.
03:30A subsequent re-release flopped again, with $300,000 in ticket sales before Sony once
03:36again pulled the plug.
03:38As of 2024, Marvel Studios has yet to release a Fantastic Four film, despite four having
03:43been made previously.
03:45The first was never released, and the next two didn't entirely disappoint.
03:49The second, Rise of the Silver Surfer, didn't make enough money to garner a third film.
03:53So the franchise sat until 2015, when Fox dusted it off for yet another reboot.
03:58The Fantastic Four comics have always been somewhat lighthearted and humorous, but the
04:02gritty remake in 2015 dumped all of that and went in an entirely different direction.
04:08As a result, the long-beloved characters didn't match up to what fans expected from a Fantastic
04:13Four adaptation, and the result was a movie that was universally panned.
04:17The film cost $120 million, and it made $167 million at the box office, making Fantastic
04:24Four a certified box office bomb.
04:27One major problem surrounded the film's director, Josh Trank, who spoke out negatively about
04:31his own movie hours before it premiered.
04:34Trank blamed studio interference for the film's problems.
04:372004's The Punisher was released to theaters in the spring of that year.
04:42Starring Thomas Jane as the vigilante superhero Frank Castle.
04:45Unfortunately, while The Punisher had a lot going for it, including a stellar cast, it
04:50did not do well at the box office.
04:52The budget was relatively small at $33 million, but it only made $54 million in ticket sales.
04:58This coupled with DVD sales was enough to garner a sequel-turned-reboot.
05:03But as far as its theatrical performance, The Punisher was lackluster at best.
05:07Part of the problem is how grim the film comes off.
05:10There's not even much satisfaction in seeing the bad guy, played by John Travolta, pay
05:13for killing Castle's family.
05:15Travolta is also a bit over-the-top and more comical than threatening.
05:19"...And Mike, if you don't like it, just remember one thing.
05:22I've got more guns than you do."
05:24This doesn't balance well when contrasted against Jane's evocative depiction of the
05:28character.
05:29Critics weren't impressed either, making The Punisher a box office bomb.
05:332008's Punisher Warzone was a reimagining that nobody asked for, seeing as the prior
05:38Punisher wasn't especially well-received.
05:40Regardless, the studio behind the property, Lionsgate, made the movie, doing it with a
05:45comparable budget.
05:46Instead of throwing the needed funding into the project, the budget was capped at $35
05:50million.
05:51That limited special effects and makeup, which became problematic.
05:56Warzone features all the graphic violence you'd expect in an R-rated Punisher film,
06:00but it doesn't come off as gory or gritty.
06:02Instead, the violence is over-the-top, but in a bad way.
06:05It's campy and limited, making Warzone unbelievable.
06:08And while Ray Stevenson's portrayal of Marvel's gun-toting vigilante was exceptional, he couldn't
06:14save the film, which only brought in $10 million at the box office.
06:19Dark Phoenix was the tenth X-Men movie and the fourth of the prequel series of films
06:22produced by Fox, but it's also the most despised.
06:26The movie wasn't cheap, costing the studio $200 million, but it only brought in $252
06:31million in global ticket sales.
06:33The biggest problem fans had with the movie was how different it was from the comics.
06:37Important character elements were disregarded, making for an unsatisfying adaptation.
06:42There are several reasons why Dark Phoenix bombed at the box office, including the fact
06:46that the franchise already did a version of this story in X-Men The Last Stand, which
06:50was also a disappointing adaptation.
06:52On top of that, it didn't utilize its best actors, preferring to focus on other characters.
06:57Furthermore, critics and fans didn't hold back in trashing it, killing what little positive
07:02word-of-mouth it may have generated.
07:0420th Century Fox spent a lot of time and money developing The New Mutants, which spent years
07:09in development hell.
07:11Production had a few starts and stops throughout the process, and thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic
07:15and other issues, it had a rocky release.
07:18The film was initially slated to premiere in 2018, but delays pushed it to 2020.
07:23By the time it finally made its way to theaters, Disney had finalized its acquisition of Fox.
07:28This changed the business plan for the X-Men franchise, which included The New Mutants.
07:33This was the final film in Fox's pre-Disney X-Men franchise, but instead of promoting
07:37it and trying to get people to watch, the film was given a limited August 2020 release,
07:42before being dumped on Disney+.
07:44This move, as well as a lack of widespread promotion, effectively doomed The New Mutants
07:49from the start.
07:50The film cost Fox $67 million to produce, but it only pulled in $49 million in ticket
07:56sales.
07:57The film didn't release streaming figures for its movies, so how it did on Disney+,
08:00is anyone's guess.
08:01Either way, many critics also felt that the film wasn't deserving of 94 minutes of your
08:06time.
08:07Hey, Yogi!
08:08Lions and tigers and bears on my… red lockheed.
08:16Eternals hit theaters in late 2021, which wasn't a spectacular time to release a film.
08:21The movie features a large cast of characters and plenty of CGI, and it was incredibly expensive.
08:27Before tax subsidies that cost $36 million, the studio dropped $272 million on production.
08:35The expenses weren't overcome by the film's $402 million box office take, resulting in
08:40a $52 million loss.
08:41COVID still kept a lot of people away from theaters, and audiences didn't connect with
08:46the characters.
08:47The film was largely forgettable.
08:48Even with the pandemic behind it, Eternals remains a black sheep of the MCU's Phase 4.
08:54Few recent films have been as universally despised as Madam Web, and there are numerous
08:58reasons why the movie bombed.
09:00The film adapts characters from Spider-Man comics, but isn't connected outright to Peter
09:04Parker or anything else Spidey-related.
09:07This isn't a great way to connect with fans, either.
09:10But more than that, the characters in the film are nothing like the comic book creations
09:14that inspired them.
09:15This alienates an existing fanbase, but there's more to it than that.
09:18Most people don't know who Madam Web is in the comics unless they're avid readers, so
09:22this was a film nobody really asked for.
09:24It was eviscerated by critics, garnering an 11 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
09:29The script is terrible and filled with awful dialogue nobody would say unless they were
09:34paid to, unlike the actors in the film.
09:36Did I die?
09:37On top of everyone else disliking Madam Web, its star Dakota Johnson described the plot
09:42as AI-generated.
09:43She claimed that she never watched the movie, and the film's promotional tour was unenthusiastic.
09:47You don't have to know anything about anything at all to watch this movie.
09:55Madam Web cost Sony somewhere in the low $100 million range, and it only brought in $100
09:59million.
10:01Captain Marvel was a fun departure from standard MCU films, taking place in the past and looping
10:06Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury into the story.
10:09The film's plot demanded a sequel, but it didn't arrive for years.
10:12You could watch the Marvels without knowing who the adult Monica Rambeau or Kamala Khan
10:16are, but you'd be pretty lost.
10:18The film's exposition almost demands that you already know those shows before watching
10:22the movie, which alienated some viewers.
10:24The Marvels is a fun yet unimportant superhero movie starring three protagonists only a handful
10:29of viewers know well enough to follow.
10:31Brie Larson's Captain Marvel was fully established, but the other two weren't.
10:35A near-total lack of promotion due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, scenes set on a planet where
10:40everyone sings, a B-grade villain, and superhero fatigue also didn't help to box office bomb.
10:46Years before the MCU dominated popular culture, director Aang Lee made Hulk, the first big-screen
10:52adventure for Marvel's popular green-skinned rage monster.
10:55This was a big deal at the time, and a lot of effort went into honoring the comics through
11:00brilliant cinematography that utilized panels and other comic book tropes to visually drive
11:04the film's narrative.
11:06While the VFX doesn't compare to what exists decades later, it wasn't bad for 2003, and
11:11fans finally got to see the Hulk in live-action on the big screen.
11:15Unfortunately, the film features several significant departures from the source material, which
11:19fans never appreciate.
11:21On top of that, the film is very cerebral, which put off some viewers, and its glacial
11:26pacing didn't help either.
11:27Hulk was an ambitious project, and it shows, but it's since been overshadowed by more comic-accurate
11:32fare in the MCU.
11:34Lee took the character a bit too seriously to depict him properly, making the film a
11:38largely forgettable mess.
11:39Hulk cost Universal $137 million to produce.
11:43The film made $245 million, but not enough for the studio to break even.