History has shown that any shared superhero universe not operated by Marvel Studios stands at least a 50/50 chance of crumbling into nothingness at the very first hurdle, so Netflix was potentially setting itself up for a fall after dubbing incoming animated feature Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie as its very own MCU.
That being said, there’s already a sizeable in-built fandom given that the original series spanned 130 episodes and launched a multimedia empire, not to mention the fact writer and director Jeremy Zag’s whimsical family-friendly adventure is already in the midst of a theatrical run internationally.
At a cost of $80 million, Ladybug & Cat Noir hasn’t been busting any blocks after barely passing $10 million in ticket sales so far, but when you consider almost 1.1 million of those stubs and $8.9 million of those takings have come from its native France, then it’s a decent result.
Of course, the prospective Miraculous franchise isn’t strictly a Netflix exclusive, but Ladybug & Cat Noir will be premiering in countless markets this coming Friday, including the United States and Latin America. If it wants to play the MCU at its own game, then it’ll need to make an instant splash on the viewership charts, although it remains to be seen if domestic audiences will take to it in the same way.
Then again, in-house animations like Nimona and The Sea Beast have proven to be all-conquering sensations among subscribers, so if there is to be a new MCU on the block, then it’ll need to come close to matching those respective behemoths in terms of viewership numbers, because it ain’t gonna recoup those substantial production cost from its big screen run.