“The Marvels” is shaping up to be the biggest box office flop in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that’s no concern for star Iman Vellani. The 21-year-old actor makes her big screen debut in the superhero tentpole by reprising her role of Kamala Khan from the Disney+ television series “Ms. Marvel.” In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment following the movie’s disastrous opening weekend, Vellani said “The Marvels” flopping is an issue for Disney CEO Bob Iger and not for her.
“I don’t want to focus on something that’s not even in my control, because what’s the point?” she said. “That’s for Bob Iger.”
“[The box office] has nothing to do with me,” Vellani continued. “I’m happy with the finished product, and the people that I care about enjoyed the film. It’s genuinely a good time watching this movie, and that’s all we can ask for with these films. It has superheroes, it take place in space, it’s not that deep and it’s about teamwork and sisterhood. It’s a fun movie, and I’m just so happy that I can share it with people.”
“The Marvels” opened to $47 million at the domestic box office, thelowest opening weekendin the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Before that opening, the worst debut belonged to 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk” ($55.4 million, not adjusted for inflation), which premiered at the dawn of the MCU. News for “The Marvels” only got worse as it earned $10.2 million in its second weekend, a disastrous 78% drop that now holds the record the MCU’s biggest second-weekend drop. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” previously had the largest decline of the franchise with 69.9%. It’s likely “The Marvels” won’t even make it to $100 million at the domestic box office at this point.
In her Yahoo interview, Vellani also addressed Stephen King’s recent defense of the movie. Some toxic trolls on social media have been celebrating “The Marvels” flopping because the story centers on three female superheroes and the film is directed by a woman. King shut down those trolls on X (formerly Twitter) after the movie’s opening weekend.
“I don’t go to MCU movies, don’t care for them, but I find this barely masked gloating over the low box office for ‘The Marvels’ very unpleasant,” King wrote on X/Twitter to his 7.1 million followers. “Why gloat over failure?”
He added in a separate post, “Some of the rejection of ‘The Marvels’ may be adolescent fanboy hate. You know, ‘Yuck! GIRLS!’”
“Having Stephen King in anyone’s corner is pretty awesome,” Vellani said, adding that has been shrugging off bullies long before she became a superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“I had a lot of experience in high school alone when I would share my excitement with someone, and then they’d immediately shut me down for being so excited,” she said. “I would hate to see that within the fan community as well, because it does feel awful. If people are excited about something, let them be excited about it. And if you have constructive criticism, voice it — but never be the wet blanket on someone else’s excitement.”
“The Marvels” is now playing in movie theaters nationwide from Disney.
