Walking out of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” I was basking in a feeling I’ve not experienced for several years: Excitement for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Hello, old friend, it’s been far too long.
Clearly I wasn’t the only one who rushed out to see Tom Holland’s fourth solo outing as the world’s most popular superhero. In North America, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” brought in an amazing $360 million in its opening weekend, which marks the biggest domestic debut in box office history. Analysts predict that by the end of its run, the comic book flick could gross more than $2 billion worldwide, with more records to tumble.
The film represents the strength of the Spider-Man brand, the popularity of this incarnation of the character, and a much-needed win for the MCU after several years of struggle in the wake of 2020's “Avengers: Endgame.” With the return of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes due on December 18, when “Avengers: Doomsday” arrives, it would be easy to declare the “MCU is back!”
Perhaps it is. There’s every possibility the one-two punch of Spider-Man and the Avengers is just the start of a second golden era of box-office-breaking Marvel movies, but there’s also reason for caution. The MCU looks to be on the right track, but the magic isn’t fully restored. The MCU’s toughest tests are still to come, and they’ll be fought without Spidey.
(This article includes spoilers for “Spider-Man Brand New Day.” You’ve been warned!)
‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ might have cured my Marvel fatigue
I should clarify at this point: while I’ve been suffering from a wicked case of Marvel fatigue since around 2022 (I blame "Moon Knight"), it never extended to Spider-Man. It’s the obvious pick, but he’s my favourite comic book hero, and I’ll consume almost any media featuring the character.
So, I went into “Brand New Day” with plenty of hype. I didn’t need to be convinced to care about Peter Parker (Tom Holland), MJ (Zendaya) or Ned (Jacob Batalon). But what “Brand New Day” did that I didn’t necessarily expect was have me looking to the future of the interconnected superhero franchise with a degree of anticipation I’ve not felt for a long time.
Consider this your final spoiler warning, but the inclusion of Sadie Sink as Jean Grey was my favorite part of the entire movie. It takes some doing to upstage Spider-Man, but Sink’s portrayal of the uber-powerful X-Men was phenomenal. In this incarnation of the character, Jean hasn’t yet joined up with Xavier and his School for Mutants, and instead is initially a villain. Only once we learn her tragic backstory are we given context for her actions.
With a full X-Men movie set within the MCU in the pipeline, I can’t wait to see how this version of Jean fits into the team dynamic. And if the casting rumours are any indication, the MCU’s X-Men could be quite the eccentric group of outsiders, underdogs and eventually heroes. This small taster in “Brand New Day” has me eager for the full meal later down the line.
I felt last year’s MCU efforts “Thunderbolts” and “Fantastic Four: First Steps” were enjoyable enough blockbusters in their own right. However, I didn’t leave my local cinema desperate to see their respective cast return as soon as possible. I could wait. After “Brand New Day,” I’m already scouring the internet for news of “X-Men’s” release date (it’s rumored for 2028).
‘Avengers: Doomsday” is a Hail Mary, but a necessary one
But before we can see the “X-Men” rebooted within the MCU, there’s the small matter of “Doomsday” on the horizon. There’s no escaping that there’s a stink of desperation about the much-anticipated return of the Avengers. It perhaps doesn’t help that audience members who haven’t kept up with Marvel homework might not even know who’s in the team.
Marvel Studios has spent Phases 4 and 5 throwing as many new heroes and ideas at the wall as possible, and precious few of them have actually stuck. Heck, even the big bad the Avengers were supposed to be facing, Kang the Conqueror, totally flopped. A rushed retooling saw Kang booted, and Doctor Doom (played by the returning Robert Downey Jr.) drafted in. “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” was out; in steps “Avengers: Doomsday.”
This speaks to the increasingly messy nature of the MCU over the last five years. A franchise that once felt mapped out to the letter was suddenly unmoored, making major alterations on the fly, and banking on nostalgia when all else fails. The recasting of Downey Jr., beloved for his portrayal of MCU anchor Tony “Iron Man” Stark, and the unexpected return of Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers certainly do not scream “this was always the plan.” They appear to be Hail Mary pivots made out of desperation rather than narrative inspiration.
However, nostalgia sells. Last month, a limited selection of “Avengers: Doomsday” tickets went on sale and generated $16.5 million in a day. These tickets were just for the movie in premium formats (but no IMAX; “Dune Part 3” has those screens on lockdown), so represent only a fraction of an opening weekend haul expected to top out at “Brand New Day” level.
Maybe an “Avengers” movie that mixes the old guard with the young blood is needed. Yes, “Doomsday’s” marketing is aggressively pushing stalwarts Downey Jr., Evans and Chris Hemsworth’s Thor. However, there is space for new(er) faces like the Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four, Shang-Chi, Shuri and Sam Wilson, who has been in the MCU for ages, but only in Phase Four swapped his role as sidekick Falcon for Captain America.
“Avengers: Doomsday,” which will lead into next year’s “Avengers: Secret Wars,” widely expected to function as a soft reboot of the MCU, was clearly not the endpoint mapped out after the Infinity Saga drew to a satisfying close in 2020, but I understand why Marvel has radically reworked its roadmap. After all, desperate times often call for desperate measures.
But don’t call it a Marvel comeback just yet
It would be easy to look at the obscene “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” box office figures, coupled with the hype already building for “Avengers: Doomsday,” and conclude the MCU has successfully course-corrected. However, I’m not willing to echo that sentiment. At least not yet. Because Spider-Man and Avengers were always the MCU’s strongest weapons.
I don’t think even at its most battered and bruised the MCU could fall far enough for a Spider-Man or Avengers movie to flop. These are powerful sub-brands within the overarching franchise. The “break glass in case of emergency” bankers that have the enduring appeal to thrive even when the Marvel universe is floundering. And flounder the MCU has in recent years. Gone are the days when the MCU brand was enough to sell cinema tickets even for a movie starring characters unknown to a mass audience.
Phases 4 and 5 are littered with box office disappointments (“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” “Captain America: Brave New World”) and some outright financial bombs (“Eternals” and “The Marvels”). The MCU’s move into Disney+ original series has also been a mixed bag, with even acclaimed projects, like “Wonder Man,” failing to attract enough viewers.
Kevin Feige recently admitted that last year’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” disappointed at the box office, showing that MCU skepticism remains in the air. Spider-Man and the Avengers can flip the narrative, to a degree, but until Marvel is again ruling the box office, turning outsiders like “Guardians of the Galaxy” into household heroes, it’s not truly back.
Of course, perhaps the big question is whether that level of success can be recaptured. Post-pandemic, the theatrical landscape has never been more cutthroat. Blockbusters with budgets ballooning north of $150m bomb on an alarmingly regular basis. Marvel’s big rival, DC, recently got its feet burned when its nascent DCU suffered its first audience rejection in the form of “Supergirl,” which grossed $125 million on a budget of around $180 million. Alarmingly, it's only the second feature of this new DC universe.
Expecting the MCU to recapture its glory days between 2012 and 2020 is a tall order. The approach going forward might be to rely heavily on a few juggernauts like Spider-Man and perhaps the X-Men, and save the “lesser” heroes for Avengers team-ups or opt to include them as supporting characters alongside a more dependable lead, like the web-slinger.
There are still a great many unknowns in the MCU’s future, not least of which is what the universe will even look like post “Secret Wars.” Audience interest is clearly still there for the right projects like “Spider-Man” and the “Avengers.” Nevertheless, the MCU still looks fragile to me, but at least for the first time in forever, I’m looking to the future with some excitement.
Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Subscribe to Tom's Guide on YouTube and follow Tom's Guide Entertainment on TikTok and Instagram. Finally, you can visit our dedicated Tom's Guide Savings Squad hub for expert help on getting the best products for less.
More from Tom's Guide
- How to watch the Marvel movies in order
- 5 hidden details in the ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ trailer
- Who's the best Spider-Man ever? Here is my definitive answer
