Marvel Gets Roasted For Changing 'Thunderbolts' To 'The New Avengers' After Film Bombs In Its Opening Weekend
Marvel Studios announced it was changing the name of its latest release Thunderbolts to The New Avengers following the film’s opening weekend where it bombed.
In its opening weekend at the box office, Thunderbolts grossed $74.3 million domestically and another $86.2 million internationally for a global gross of just $160.5 million.
This was below the projections from from box office analyst Shawn Robbins, whose long range projection was $76 million, but had increased it to $81.3 million ahead of the film’s release.
It was however, within the range of trade outlets Variety and Deadline and outperformed The Hollywood Reporter’s $70 to $73 million projection range.
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Box office analyst OMB Reviews noted this is the second worst opening weekend for a Marvel Cinematic Universe film ever when factoring in inflation. The only film that performed worse was The Marvels, which grossed $46.1 million in its opening weekend back in 2023.
He also shared his estimations that the film also had the second lowest number of tickets sold with just 5.4 million using a $14 average price per ticket. He compared that to Captain America: Brave New World, which only sold 6.3 million, and Eternals, which only sold 6.8 million.
Later in this video, he noted that the film was unlikely to break even based on the estimated production budget of $180 million, which means the film has to gross at least $540 million to break even.
Following this dismal performance, Marvel decided to unveil a new name for the film. On X, Marvel Entertainment revealed the new name change posting “Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts* The New Avengers is now playing only in theaters.”
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People did not take well to it. One wrote, “So they weren't the Thunderbolts....now they're also not the New Avengers.....just....like...name them something entirely different for the MCU? Why even use these names of existing franchises if they aren't those things? Is this just to irritate fans of the comics?”
Another wrote, “They are now trying to change the name of the movie it is bombing so hard.”
“I feel like this should have been done as a subtitle instead of a complete rebrand… “Thunderbolts: The New Avengers,” suggested one.
Another posted, “Now that I know the ending, I don’t have to go pay to see the movie. Thanks Marvel!”
Another posted, “These Disney+ rejects? Y'all must be desperate.”
“I thought this was a joke.. and then I went to a movie ticket site (Cinemark in my case) and its real. Really? Renaming the movie for no good reason to cause confusion? Did you really think this would make the movie sell better? Because it worked so well with "Captain America 4," wrote Caspearious.
“This marketing would have been amazing if they didn’t start changing the title 2 days after it came to theaters,” said AlexTheRealOne5. “Give people at least a couple weeks to see it first before you spoil your own movie.”
Still others criticized the spoilery nature of the title change, “I feel like I don't even have to watch the movie now.”
Another added, “I really loved this movie and watched it with some people who don't keep up with every single Marvel release, and they loved it too, but is this really the best move? Spoiling the movie after the first weekend just to get people intrigued?”
“This is the stupidest marketing campaign. I want to see Thunderbolts, not *The New Avengers,” wrote Uebok_Rebuke.
“What the heck,” posted another. “Normally I go opening weekend but for this one I made an exception to someone could join me. Aaand spoiled. Thankssssssssss Marvel”
What do you make of these reactions to the name change? What do you make of the film’s opening weekend box office returns?
Pretty sure this was the marketing plan all along, given the * in the title from the start. It was likely a plan to give the movie an artificial second launch since the first time they talked about it. It won't work. No one even likes The Avengers anymore in the first place. If you don't even like Coca Cola, New Coke isn't going to make things better.
This is an admission that the movie bombed. Maybe the title will convince whatever normie audience the MCU has left, but I doubt it will be some major turnaround.