It’s been a year of ups and downs for Marvel, but mostly downs if we’re being honest. As such, the studio has to celebrate the small wins. The much anticipated return of Sam Wilson in Captain America: Brave New World failed to take off earlier this year but it’s had a bit of second wind thanks to another Marvel flop.
If you were to look at the most streamed movies and shows in the U.S. on Disney Plus right now, you’d find Ironheart in the number one spot with the fourth Captain American film close behind at number two. It seems the latest MCU project may have re-ignited interests in the critically panned film although it’s unlikely to have made viewers be any less harsh on the film.
The fourth Cap film did not do well
Captain America: Brave New World didn’t exactly wow critics and audiences. With a 47% score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing it’s one of the lowest rated MCU projects. It’s performance at the box office wasn’t much better, while it’s estimated the film possibly broke even, it didn’t come close to the numbers of films such as Captain America: Civil War which made worldwide gross of over $1 billion compared to Brave New World which only just surpassed $400 million.
Reactions at the time were less than favorable to Sam Wilson’s first big screen outing as Cap. The bad word of mouth quickly killed off the movie’s hopes and dreams at the box office. But now that some time has passed, maybe audiences are ready to give him a second chance with the benefit of hindsight.
Captain America rides Ironheart’s coattails
As for Ironheart, the MCU’s latest disaster is currently being skewered by audiences, although critics are being a little kinder. The show currently has a healthy 82% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 50% audience score. That puts it miles ahead of Brave New World.
For reasons that are hard to explain it seems the new series has prompted audiences to re-watch Brave New World. Ironheart doesn’t follow on from the plot of the latest Captain America either. It’s possible that people who skipped it upon its initial release are just now going back to experience it after watching Ironheart, or maybe people want to compare the two projects to see which is better.
Either way, this is a good thing for Marvel Studios. Despite some negative feedback on its latest series, it seems to have encouraged viewers to consume more MCU content which can only be a good thing. While Marvel might be in a rut right now, this shows that there is still an audience out there.
