Marvel has been in a lull since the release of “Avengers: Endgame in 2019”. Some of the recent movies such as “Eternals,” “The Marvels,” “Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness,” and “Thor: Love and Thunder” have not been as well-received by fans, according to Rotten Tomatoes. 

Where “Eternals” received a 47% on the tomatometer, “Avengers: Endgame” received a 94%.  

“Avengers: Endgame” was released and became a hit reaching $2 billion dollars in the worldwide box office, meanwhile “Eternals” was released two years later and only made $400 million. Marvel is not making nearly the same amount of money as they have in the past.

COMPASS junior and Film Club Secretary Colten Simons says, “I personally don’t really connect with the recent films because the storyline is in too many directions at the moment.” 

The next Marvel movie “Thunderbolts” will be released on May 2, 2025. To understand this movie, you would have needed to watch “Black Widow,” “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp.”

This has been the trend for Marvel since the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) started, with different projects and stories all tying into one accumulative series. Marvel will release stand-alone origin story movies introducing the characters, later all came together in one team-up movie. For example, the first Avengers movie titled “Avengers,” where all the heroes teamed up to defeat a common enemy.

This formula combines all the confusing storylines in the newest Avengers movies, “Avengers: Secret Wars” and “Avengers: Doomsday.” 

“Deadpool and Wolverine” along with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”  have certainly been a bright spot for Marvel in a dark time for their movies. Although Marvel’s recent track record hasn’t been the best, they are still the highest-earning movie franchise of all time.