Marvel's female superhero movie sees worst opening ever for franchise despite touting diverse cast and female director

The latest superhero film released by Marvel and Disney had the worst opening weekend of any of their Marvel Cinematic Universe movies to date, falling $10 million short of the previous low.

The female-led cast of "The Marvels" was touted as having the perfect blend of women and diversity. Star Brie Larson was joined by Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani, a Canadian actress "of Pakistani origin," according to IMdB.

The film was also directed by a woman, Nia DaCosta, who was praised for her inclusion of a gay couple in previous movie "Candyman," in which Parris also starred.

None of this could stop the new superhero movie from bottoming out at $47 million for its long-weekend opening, the worst in the MCU series. As a prequel to 2019's "Captain Marvel," it earned less than a third of that movie's $153.4 opening.

This landed "The Marvels" dead last in the Marvel-Disney superhero earnings, taking spot number 33 behind "Ant-Man," which garnered $57.2 million in 2015.

Only outside of Disney-backed franchises can you find worse-performing Marvel movies. "Morbius," which was made with Sony in 2022, made just $39 million, while 20th Century Fox’s “Fantastic Four” reboot did $25.6 million in 2015, according to the Associated Press.

For a studio film with a $200 million budget, the results are disastrous, according to Deadline, which blamed Disney for overextending the Marvel brand and not its clear push for female-led diversity.

Director DaCosta had recently commented about mistreatment based on her race and gender. She told Vanity Fair that "sometimes as a black woman, you realize that [people think] you take up more space than you actually do, or your voice sounds louder to people than it actually is, or your tone is more stern than it actually is."

On set of the aforementioned "Candyman," DaCosta claimed that crew members said "things that are super inappropriate, that you would just never say to anyone else because they were so specific to my gender, my race, my age."

As well, Larson had previously faced backlash from Marvel fans after a speech she gave at the 2018 Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards. Larson accepted the award for "Excellence in Film" and took her time on stage to criticize the film industry for having too many "white dude" film critics.

"67% of the top critics reviewing the 100 highest grossing movies in 2017 were white males," she complained. "Less than a quarter were white women and less than 10% were unrepresented men. Only 2.5 (percent) of those top critics were women of color," she added.

"I do not need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn't work for him about 'A Wrinkle in Time.' It wasn't made for him," Larson lectured. "I want to know what that film meant to women of color, to biracial women, to teen women of color, to teens that are biracial, and, for the third time, I don't hate white dudes."

Larson then claimed that her comments were "just facts" and "not [her] feelings."

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