Reviews for ‘The Eternals’ are in from a variety of pop culture websites, and they are mixed. CNN called it “A big messy adaptation”,The Atlantic called it “elegant”, Indiewire said it was “a huge but overtly familiar superhero epic”, The San Diego Union-Tribune called it a “cosmic breath of fresh air that turns stale”, and Games radar said “The Eternals” “gives the MCU the kick in the pants it needs”. It looks as if ‘The Eternals’ might be headed for trouble at the box office, and Marvel chief Kevin Feige might be on a roll with a 0-3 start to phase four of the MCU. The question is will Disney stand for Kevin Feige’s third straight failure?
Mixed Reviews Will Not Equal Dollars at the Box Office
With an alleged production budget of $200 million(I think it’s north of that considering the vast amount of location shooting there was compared to any other Marvel movie), ‘The Eternals’ would have to get close to $500 million to just break even. With mixed reviews from the staunchest of allies in the media, this does not bode well for Kevin Feige and the MCU. Not to mention that in a lot of the reviews, there’s more focus on what a wonderful romance story ‘The Eternals’ is or how the MCU needs someone of Chloe Zhao’s pedigree in the MCU. What pedigree? She won an Oscar for a movie that barely anyone watched and has three indie directing credits to her name. She might very well be talented, but why was she chosen to direct a big budget Marvel superhero movie? I’m just guessing here, but with Kevin Feige’s obsession with diversity and representation, he probably wanted to ensure that ‘The Eternals’ had the ultimate representation in the credits. Kevin Feige has been more focused on talking about how diverse the MCU will be, on the red carpet, than any actual story, and that my friends is a recipe for disaster.
Kevin Feige’s Obsession With Representation Will Only Help Phase 4 Fail
Kevin Feige’s track record for the start of phase four has not been a rounding success and has lost Disney dollars at the box office. ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ and ‘Black Widow’ failed to make a profit at the box office with ‘Shang-Chi’ being one of the worst ranked MCU movies to date if you adjust for inflation. If ‘The Eternals’ fails at the box office, and it just might, as it’s not getting a release in China because of the situation surrounding Cloe Zhao, the future of Kevin Feige’s vision for the new MCU might come into question. Kevin Feige’s reputation might also come in to question, considering ‘Shang-Chi’ and ‘Black Widow’ are both solely Kevin Feige’s decisions. Everything in the MCU that came after ‘Avengers: Endgame’, including the Disney Plus series’, has been all under Kevin Feige’s full credit. With Feige’s adamant stance on ensuring representation in all of the MCU’s properties going forward, Disney might have to rethink if that strategy is worth the cost.
Related: Kevin Feige’s brave New World
