
Some MCU fans aren’t too thrilled with Disney for intentionally spoiling a lot of their most recent reveals in trailers and marketing materials, especially where Fantastic Four: First Steps is concerned.
Considering the Marvel Cinematic Universe is literally the most profitable film franchise of all time, some leaks here and there are to be expected.
But is a leak still technically a leak if it comes from Disney’s marketing team itself?
Sometimes, spoiling things in the trailers is understandable.
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Having the marketing material spoil that Red Hulk was going to be in Captain America: Brave New World and revealing that the Guardians were going to be in Avengers: Infinity War just kind of makes sense, because it’s impossible to hide the fact that you’ve cast big-name actors for specific roles (especially if they’re reprising said roles).
Other times, however, Disney seems to spoil stuff just for the fun of it.
Ironically, I am about to spoil something they’ve already spoiled (so skip this paragraph if you’ve not seen Thunderbolts yet), but everything about “Bob” and his role as Sentry/Void was spoiled in the trailers for Thunderbolts. No wonder nobody went to see it, they already got the entire plot for free when they went on YouTube.
Well, one user over on the r/marvelstudios subreddit is sick of it all, and they stated as much in a thread titled “Dear Marvel: Stop Spoiling your own movies out of desperation”.
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The thing is… the majority of the folks in the comments seem to actually be pro-spoilers, at least when they come from Disney directly.
“You do realize 90% of the audience doesn’t care right. They need to be pulled in,” commented user Future-Tip8581.
“Red Hulk was a HUGE draw for most people, as with Spider-Man in Civil War and Hulk in Ragnarok and Guardians in IW. They care about Money thats all.”
“Studies frequently show that spoilers often increase hype overall, not decrease it,” replied user corik_starr.
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“I'm pretty sure Marvel knows that, and they aren't going to cater to the vocal minority of persistently online Marvel gatekeepers.”
Now, personally, I think there is a middle ground here.
Yeah, sure, Disney needs to make big money on all their films, so they wanna entice people to the cinema by putting the juicy stuff in the trailers.
The problem is, the MCU has been slowly raking in less and less money over recent years.
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Captain America: Brave New World reportedly made $415 million, up against $425 million total budget (including marketing). Thunderbolts made $382 million, and it also supposedly needed roughly $400 million to break even.
I’m not saying that spoiling everything in the trailers for both films is the sole reason that they didn’t perform at the box office, but, by the looks of things, it clearly didn’t help.
It’s clear that there are other problems plaguing the MCU’s box office returns. That I won’t deny. But if a bit of the mystery of the early MCU returned, I do think it might help drive people to the cinemas.
Instead, it seems like everyone is just waiting to watch the new MCU films when they eventually drop on Disney+. I mean, why bother paying for a cinema ticket if you already know everything that happens? You can just wait to watch it on your TV instead.
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Here’s hoping they don’t opt to spoil every element of Avengers: Doomsday in the marketing, because it seems that the future of the MCU hinges on that film’s performance (especially considering that Robert Downey Jr. has reportedly been paid $100 million for starring in it).
Man… imagine how hype it would have been to find out that RDJ was playing Doctor Doom in the cinema instead. We’d have all just assumed that he was returning as Iron Man and had our minds blown.
Topics: MCU, Marvel, Disney, TV And Film