It's official: The Marvels is the worst-performing MCU movie ever, making even less than Black Adam, DC's similarly poor performer from last fall. Over the last decade and a half, Marvel has proven to be hugely popular, with its biggest movies among the highest earning films of all time. Meanwhile, The Marvels star Brie Larson is a massively popular actor reprising a role from the MCU's Infinity Saga. Yet, this is where we are. So what's going on?

People throw around the term "superhero fatigue" as a reason to dismiss poorly performing comic book movies or TV shows. It's more complicated than that, though. In reality, a combination of factors are at play, including a misunderstanding of why people were so invested in the first arc of MCU movies, things Marvel Studios should've been doing to get viewers ready for the future of the franchise, and a wild miscommunication between the studio and its fans about what matters in these movies and shows.

People didn't actually like comic book movies

I love superhero movies. You might love superhero movies. But for many people, the MCU ended with Avengers Endgame--the movie that literally had Endgame in its title. For them, it wasn't about liking superhero movies or even Marvel movies specifically. Rather, many of us got swept up in our love for Steve Rogers and Tony Stark (and a few others, of course). Endgame gave finality to two of its most popular characters, and in the process gave many fans of those earlier Marvel movies an excuse not to come back. Cap, Tony, and Black Widow were all irrevocably gone, and characters like Hulk and Hawkeye were in a confusing state of limbo.