Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) attempts to save the people of Tarnax in The Marvels (2023), Marvel Entertainment
If there is one thing that modern Hollywood is great at, it’s losing millions of dollars on films you didn’t want to watch – and perhaps no studio in recent years has been more skilled in doing so than Disney.

Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) attempts to bargain with Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) in Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania (2023), Marvel Entertainment
If failing upwards was a competition, Disney would be the pound for pound the #1 ranked in the world.

2023 was a rough year for the Disney backed Marvel Studios creatively, financially, and even legally. When the year began, Marvel had planned for actor Jonathan Majors to be the villainous face of the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with his role as the time-travelling Kang the Conqueror set to start with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and at least last to the next Avengers movie, then entitled Avengers: Kang Dynasty.

Several months and a nasty legal battle later, not only was Majors out as Kang, but Disney had also wound up losing millions on two of these ‘Phase 6’ films – Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania and The Marvels, a.k.a. Captain Marvel 2.
Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) tries and fails to rescue Monica Rambeau (Teyonnah Parris) from becoming lost to the multiverse in The Marvels (2023), Marvel Entertainment

More specifically, per Disney’s financial statements from 2023, as obtained and relayed by Forbes, the respective box office failures of both films resulted in a roughly $296.4 million loss for the House of Mouse.

Released in February 2023, Quantumania was a major disappointment as the film was set up to bring in Majors’ Kang as the next Thanos-level Marvel villain.

However, this selling point did little to bring in viewers, who instead just didn’t bother to see Kang’s reveal on the big screen. As a result, the film only drew in $476.1 million worldwide against a production budget of somewhere between $280-320 million dollars.
Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) realizes his plans have been thwarted in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), Marvel Entertainment
Several months later, Brie Larson made her post-Shang-Chi MCU return in The Marvels, wherein Larson’s Captain Marvel joined Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel and Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau to form a trio of space-faring heroes.

But rather than the smash ‘TV-movie’ crossover hit Disney execs thought it would be, the film ultimately turned out to be the franchise’s biggest disaster, drawing in just $206.1 million dollars on a production budget that is said to have surpassed $270 million dollars.

As a result, the film has gone down in history as not just the lowest-grossing film of the MCU thus far, and one of the few MCU films not to break-even in its theatrical run.

According to Forbes, as both movies went on to gross $682.2 million worldwide. after the studios split the box office with the theaters, Marvel Studios only earned $341 million from both movies, leaving them with a combined loss of almost $300 million.
Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) proposes that the titular team undergo some training in The Marvels (2023), Marvel Entertainment
When you account for the marketing budget for both of these movies (which in Hollywood is generally calculated as being at least equal to that of a respective film’s production budget), Disney sunk a over a billion dollars into Quantumania and The Marvels only to recoup roughly 35% back.

This loss, as well as the the overall failure of the MCU’s Phase 5, was so great that it prompted Marvel Studios to not just scrap their plans for Kang all together, but also bring back both the Russo Brothers and Robert Downey Jr. for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) realizes he’s going to need some help from a certain web-slinger in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Marvel Studios
Admittedly, 2024 has been a much better ride for the MCU, with Deadpool & Wolverine having earned $1.3 billion worldwide – the largest box office pull for a rated R movie of all time. While the short term victory looks good for Disney’s quarterly statements, the question remains if Marvel can turn the ship around completely in 2025.

Next up for Marvel is the troubled Captain America: Brave New World, which has already been delayed by two years and was reshot almost entirety due to failed test screenings for the film. Its estimated budget currently sits at $350-375 million, meaning that the film will have to be a monster worldwide hit for The Mouse to even begin thinking of sniffing a profit.

The studio is also banking on the success of their villain team up film Thunderbolts, which is set for a release in May 2025.

Serving as a showcase for C-list Marvel characters such as Winter Solider and Yelena Belova, Thunderbolts will serve as final film of Phase 5 before the franchise shifts towards new Avengers and Fantastic Four movies in 2026.
Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) wields the shield in Captain America: Brave New World (2025), Marvel Entertainment