Marvel Studios is doomed! Movie theaters are going to disappear! The sky is falling! Okay, that’s just hyperbole. But if you look at the last week of box office news, starting with the surprising financial decline of “Black Widow” and the incredibly harsh words from the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO), there is some concern that maybe folks aren’t flocking back to cinemas as fast as we hoped. But who is to blame? As usual, it’s a complicated question with no easy answers.
On this episode of The Playlist Podcast, we invite Rodrigo Perez, Editor-in-Chief of The Playlist, to talk about the news and his theory that perhaps Marvel Studios has unintentionally cannibalized its audiences on Disney+, viewers that no longer have to go to theaters to watch high-quality Marvel projects with the same budgets, spectacle, and A-list actors and how this may have affected “Black Widow” and its poor box office showing.
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Is NATO correct in blaming Disney+ Premier Access for taking away from box office earnings? Is the rise (again!) of COVID the reason that the recent Scarlett Johansson-led superhero film is underperforming? Or maybe Marvel Studios is teaching fans various unintentional consequential lessons thanks to “WandaVision,” “Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” and “Loki,” leading to a new trend where the event films aren’t all that exciting anymore?
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You can hear our full take on the “Black Widow” box office situation and why it might be the beginning of a rough streak for Marvel Studios films below:
As always, The Playlist Podcast is part of The Playlist Podcast Network—which includes Be Reel, Deep Focus, The Fourth Wall, and more—and can be heard on iTunes, AnchorFM, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and now on Spotify. You can stream the podcast via the AnchorFM embed below or up top to listen on this page. Follow us on iTunes, and you’ll get this podcast as well as our other shows regularly. Be sure to subscribe and drop us a comment or a rating, as we appreciate it. Thank you for listening.
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