The Marvel Cinematic Universe has taken a whole new meaning ever since the cosmos opened up with Eternals. Not only were we introduced to the Celestials but we were also given a lot of information about the new universe order that earth had been heading towards for the last million years or so. you see, it was revealed in Eternals that Earth was supposed to be the host-world for the birth of a Celestial and nothing more. If it were up to the Celestials, our planet would have been destroyed but the Eternals saved us. This adventure is why Eternals is a hit on Disney+ despite the fact that the movie was review bombed on release.
2.0M US households watched #Eternals on #DisneyPlus in its first 5 days streaming. #MarvelStudios pic.twitter.com/qatT5f38wX
— Samba TV (@samba_tv) January 18, 2022
According to an independent advertisement and analytics company called Samba TV Eternals has been streamed by 2 million households in the US ever since its release on Disney+ fice days ago. Part of the reason for this is that many people chose to not watch the movie during the pandemic season and instead held out for bigger releases like No Way Home. The thing is that these 2 million streams make Eternals the biggest MCU movie on Disney+. For perspective, Shang-Chi was only watched by 1.8 million households in the first five days of its OTT release while Black Widow garnered 1.1 million views in the same timeframe with a mixed release.
Bear in mind that Eternals outperformed Black Widow on the box office as it earned a total gross revenue of $401.9 million worldwide and Black Widow only earned $379 million. It also trailed close behind Shang-Chi, which made $432 million worldwide by the end of its theatrical run. But that is just the thing, even though the movies made similar money in theatres Eternals is outperforming other Disney movies implying that it never deserved the bad reviews.
Why Eternals Is A Hit on Disney+
It is also the 6th highest-grossing movie of 2021. Moreover, the movie has also beaten the viewership records of Zack Snyder’s Justice League which was streamed by 1.8 million households in the same time frame. The only DC movie that is ahead of Eternals would be The Suicide Squad with 2.8 million views. But why does this movie work so well in an OTT format when the theatrical run was criticized so harshly. Well, part of the reason is what we call review bombing.
Once a big critic judges a particular movie to be bad it is brandished as such by the entire critic community. That is what happened with Eternals. It was not a movie made for the typical MCU fan, and consequently, it did not follow the MCU formula. There was no massive CGI battle at the end, the entire movie was about its characters. it was a movie about the Eternals and not about their fights. Chloe Zhao was charged with the responsibility of introducing these cosmic beings to the MCU audience and that is exactly what he did.
But the fact remains that MCU audiences do not want exposition and excellent moviemaking, they want simplicity and engagement, or so the critics thought. After the review bombing, many people decided against watching the movie in theatres. This meant that the movie received less audience than it would have if the review bomb never happened. It is not just speculation but evidenced by the movie’s performance on Disney+. The movie was called an exposition dump but the reality is that it was shunned for being something different for the rest of the MCU.
The Reasoning
However, there is one argument of the naysayers that we have some trouble refuting. They claim that the movie should have been a TV series, and we guess it should have. It is true that telling the story through a TV series might have been a better choice but who can blame Marvel for trying to not go that path after the disaster that was Inhumans. However, there was simply too much in this story to fit in a 2hr 37 minute movie. So it is natural that things felt a little cramped and some storylines felt incomplete.
Was the movie perfect? No, but hardly any movie is… Was it the worst movie of all time for Marvel? Also no, they have worse projects. So, all in all, this new record is an indication of the love that Eternals should have received from the start. Let us know what you think about this down in the comments below and keep watching this space for everything Marvel, DC, and Hollywood. Excelsior!!!
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