The Marvel Cinematic Universe is an interesting place. Especially because the movie makers feel that it is their prerogative to add to the cohesive universe. Chloe Zhao was enlisted for this project and she was given the responsibility of inducting the Eternals into the MCU. Eternals came out earlier this month and had a blockbuster domestic opening where they made close to $71 million, but ever since the first week the movie has lost steam. The current box office numbers have put Eternals 2 in danger of never being made. Read the full report below.
Eternals became one of the top-performing films when it was released earlier this month. Part of the reason for this was said to be the unorthodox tone of the movie. Fans and bloggers assumed that the grown-up feel of the movie was something that audiences around the world appreciated and wanted more of. What we did not realize was, that the perceived success was nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Case in point, after the opening weekend the movie had grossed close to $161 million in ticket sales worldwide.
Cut to present day, the movie barely matched its opening weekend in the last 3 weeks. As of date, Eternals has grossed $368 million worldwide. This is disappointing for several reasons. The biggest of which is the fact the movie was projected to do much higher numbers and this performance will definitely impact the production process of Eternals 2. Marvel studios were enthusiastic about the performance of Eternals but the numbers speak for themselves.
Eternals 2 in Danger
Let’s take the analysis beat by beat. Let us start the conversation from the domestic box office because that is where the majority of revenue comes from anyway. Eternals made $71 million during its opening weekend. The next week’s collection dropped by 62.3% as Eternals only collected $26 million. This trend continued week after week as the earnings dropped to $11 million and then to finally to $7.9 million. It would normally not be a problem but the thing is that Eternals was an expensive movie to make.
The initial budget for the film was about $200 million. This was the budget only for production. If we assume that Marvel Studios must have spent just as much on marketing and giving the money to theatres out of gross revenue then the budgeted expense for the movie would come out to somewhere around $400 million ( $200 million production + $100 million marketing cost + $100 million paid for screenings). This is concerning because after a month-long theatre run the movie has grossed only about $368 million, which is nowhere close to the calculated budget.
Yes, dear readers, if one does the math at this point then they will realize that Marvel Studios will undoubtedly lose money on this money. Maybe even more than a couple of $100 million. If this does come true at the end of Eternals’ theatre run then there is a very good chance that Eternals 2 will never be sent to production. Disney may not want a second movie because of the financial failure. So, it’ll be interesting to see how Marvel will continue the story of these Eternals.
The Future
So at the end of the day, the MCU executives might have figured out that it is better to continue this elsewhere. It is possible that the fans want to see the resolution to the storylines that have been started in Eternals movie. A lot of us cannot wait to see Kit Harrington dawn the mantle of the Black Swordsman. There’s also another group of us who want to see the final battle between the Eternals and the Celestials but it seems that the battle will now shift to the smaller screen considering the box office numbers.
We cannot express the despair we feel at this news, or rather at this speculation. Maybe Marvel could ignore this and continue with Eternals 2. Who knows? We’ll have to wait to find out what happens in the future. What do you think about the entire issue? Do you think that the saga will continue on the big screen? Let us know your opinion in the comments below.
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