Unlike American audiences, critics seem to have long grown tired of Marvel movies

“Ugly and artless,” “Marvel’s rock bottom,” “the most feckless, spineless blockbuster of the last decade” — it’s fair to say that if you were of two minds about splashing out on a ticket to see “Captain America: Brave New World” over Presidents Day weekend, the critical reception might have been enough to convince you to save your cash… and yet.

The new movie, the 35th installment in the Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe, seems to be building on the studio’s impressive 2024, at least if its opening weekend is anything to go by. Disney is forecasting a $100 million domestic box office gross over the extended Presidents Day weekend. If accurate, the top four highest-grossing movies for the four-day period ever would now all be from the MCU. The film is also tipped to take more than $192 million around the world on its first weekend, which is no mean feat considering the critical mauling it received prerelease.

Slop machine

Anyone who’s kept up with the blockbuster discourse on how film buffs and reviewers feel about Marvel films will be well aware of the various criticisms leveled at the productions, though things feel like they’ve escalated around some recent releases, with Vulture arguing that the Disney-owned studio is now just a “giant slop machine.” Of course, millions of us love slop, even if we pretend not to sometimes.

While critic scores on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes might not make particularly great reading for recent releases like “Brave New World” (51%), “The Marvels” (62%), and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (46%), millions of moviegoers are still turning out to watch them, and many of the films are still turning out to be great earners for the House of Mouse. Bankrolling a movie with an unproven director, script, and characters feels risky in the current box office climate. Making Marvel movie number 36, 37, or 38? Probably a safe business bet, even if it won’t win you many Oscars.