Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is hardly setting the world on fire in any aspect. Poor (by Marvel standards) box office returns, mixed-to-negative reviews, and an overwhelming sense we’ve done it all before. Now it joins the illustrious ranks of Eternals with its latest milestone.
There’s actually a surprising amount in common between the two Marvel Cinematic Universe misfires. Strange plot which exists only to set up future movies, a villain who you basically can’t relate to, and cinematography and lighting which will make you yearn for ’60s Star Trek.
But there’s one very big common feature between Eternals and Quantumania: their abysmal Rotten Tomatoes scores. Both films currently sit together on 47 percent approval on the review aggregator, making them the equal lowest ranked films in the canon. If you hadn’t already thought about Marvel fatigue kicking in, this might prove it.
Since the beginning of Phase Four, only two films have really stood out as critical darlings as well as being fan favorites: Spider-Man: No Way Home and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Every other film has seen fairly lukewarm reviews and fan opinion, and Quantumania is no different. The exact reason to hard to gauge, although since 2020 there’s been more Marvel releases than ever before per year.
Disney Plus show, movie, Disney Plus show, movie. This has been the pattern of Phase Four and Five. Feige plans to change the release schedule, but the damage may already be done. Not catastrophic usually, but for Quantumania to sit at 47 percent and gross just $118 million is a huge drop-off from Wakanda Forever’s $181 million.
Marvel has already shifted things around, pushing The Marvels to a Nov. 2023 release in another attempt to stop the fatigue spreading further over the northern hemisphere summer.