Captain Marvel blasted into theaters over its opening weekend with an astonishing domestic
haul of over $150 million in ticket sales.
Adding global receipts bumped that figure to a staggering $455 million, making it the
sixth-highest global debut of all time.
While those numbers are impressive, when you step back and consider why the film did so
well, it all comes into focus pretty quickly.
From its impact on larger MCU storylines to some background on who Captain Marvel actually
is, here are some of the top reasons that Carol Danvers' debut flew away with the box
office.
Spoilers ahead!
The elephant in the room for all things Marvel right now is Avengers: Endgame.
Coming off last spring's anxiety-inducing third Avengers installment, at least half
of the population is dying to see what happens next.
The pent-up demand for Endgame has lent a boost to the Marvel movies that came out in
the interim.
Ant-Man and the Wasp pulled in a neat $617 million worldwide and Captain Marvel has made
over two thirds that total in its first few days of release.
While there are a ton of different factors for Captain Marvel's success, the backdrop
of Endgame looming a mere seven weeks after its release date surely helped the movie soar
to blockbuster heights.
While any Marvel movie is sure to have the answers to a lot of questions, Captain Marvel
was absolutely full of them.
Did it answer them?
"That's a yes or no question."
"Yes."
Well, sort of.
There were internal questions like who Jude Law was playing or how the filmmakers would
choose to represent the Supreme Intelligence of the Kree.
There were also some answers to bigger questions, like how the Tesseract ended up where it did
in the beginning of the first Avengers film or how Carol Danvers would make her entrance
in Endgame.
The question of how Nick Fury's pager could reach someone lightyears away was answered
when Carol upgraded it to be able to reach a distance of "a couple galaxies" in the closing
minutes of Captain Marvel.
So why didn't Fury didn't use it until Infinity War?
Carol asked that it only be used for emergencies only.
Many of the lead characters that have found their way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe
have been at least semi-familiar to audiences before they hit the big screen.
Hulk, Captain America, and Spider-Man were well-established mainstream names even before
their movies were released.
Captain Marvel, on the other hand, was about a character who was, in many ways, a mystery,
even to herself.
Before the symbol popped up on Fury's pager, most fans who weren't particularly acquainted
with deeper comic book lore might have been a bit stumped as to why the device had anything
to do with stopping Thanos.
Of course, the question only added fuel to the fire, giving Carol Danvers a mystique
that was a key driver in getting curious fans to see the film.
The success of shows like Stranger Things has continued to confirm that nostalgia-driven
pop culture can be big business, and Captain Marvel takes full advantage.
Pretty much the entire film is set during the 1990s, and the screenplay capitalized
on the opportunity to throw out as many mid-'90s callbacks as possible.
From the moment she arrives on Earth by crashing through a Blockbuster Video store's rooftop,
the '90s references are hot and heavy.
A security guard directs Danvers to a Radio Shack, where she uses a Game Boy to wire the
phone for intergalactic capabilities.
In a cafe, Danvers tries to use Alta Vista to search for information.
Through the whole movie, the satisfying nostalgia-fest just keeps going from start to finish.
While Captain Marvel had more than enough firepower to succeed on its own, it did have
help, and not just because it's a sort of opening act for Endgame.
Just as importantly, it arrived at the end of a subpar winter for the movies in general.
While 2018 was a huge year for theaters across the globe, a couple of months into 2019 the
numbers appear anything but grand by comparison.
The U.S. box office brought in a measly 1.2 billion between January 1 and February 18,
marking its lowest start to the year since 2011.
However, once Captain Marvel swooped into theaters, moviegoers flocked to see the first
new MCU addition of the year.
It added up to an insane amount of cash over those first few days after its opening, nearly
a third of the total generated during the first seven weeks of the year.
Marvel has historically been pretty stingy about doling out details before their movies
are released, and Avengers: Endgame is no exception.
However, Captain Marvel was marketed with a completely different approach.
There were numerous trailers, interviews, and TV spots beforehand showing gobs of footage
that teased audiences to come and join in the fun.
The Endgame approach may be working well for the second act to a compelling story that's
sure to bring everyone back to theaters.
But the decision to provide so much information and such a variety of teasers for Captain
Marvel was the right call for a film led by such a mysterious character.
From the sarcastic humor to shots of her glowing from head to toe and blasting her way through
space, the folks at Marvel made sure that audiences had a good sampling of the movie
before they made their decision to purchase tickets.
Captain Marvel heralded a huge expansion of the MCU by properly introducing the legendary
comic book staple of the Kree-Skrull War.
The movie opened with a prolonged series of events taking place on the Kree home planet
of Hala.
Those scenes showcased the MCU's manifestation of the Supreme Intelligence and demonstrated
just how powerful the scientifically advanced, warlike Kree race is.
As the movie progressed, it also introduced everyone's favorite shapeshifters, the Skrulls.
The pointy-eared green fellas immediately spiced things up as they arrived on Earth
and shapeshifted into some bodacious surfers.
While the Kree-Skrull conflict is an interesting facet of the film, the real buzz for fans
came from the simple knowledge that the Skrulls themselves would finally show up in the MCU.
The anticipation even sparked a flood of online theories regarding which MCU characters might
end up being revealed to have been a Skrull all along.
We know now that the Skrulls turned out to be good guys, rather than the villains they've
been in the comics for years.
But longtime comics readers' curiosity was definitely a factor that whipped up fan interest,
and drove them to the theaters looking for answers.
Each character's story arc is interesting in its own way.
But perhaps one of the greatest enigmas of the MCU thus far has been that of Nick Fury,
Agent of SHIELD.
Captain Marvel lured fans with its promise to finally give him a healthy dose of backstory,
and it didn't disappoint.
We found out he'd been a soldier, an international spy, and finally a deskbound bureaucrat before
he crossed paths with Danvers.
He also apparently didn't believe in aliens, although that changed pretty quickly once
he met up with Captain Marvel.
We also finally found out the answer to a question that's been haunting MCU fans for
so many years: how did America's Top Spy guy lose his eye?
All we knew before Captain Marvel was that Fury regarded its loss as a betrayal.
"The last time I trusted someone I lost an eye."
Who betrayed Fury in a moment of weakness?
The cat-like Flerken named Goose, who stole the show in Captain Marvel.
Earlier in the film Fury suffers some damage to his eye that ends up being nothing but
a red herring, but in the film's closing minutes, Goose, who had saved his life moments earlier,
surprised everyone by scratching the future SHIELD director's eye with a quick wave of
his alien paw.
The betrayal clearly runs deep for the super spy, even if he keeps Goose around during
the credits of Captain Marvel.
The 2018 box office was overshadowed by the massive popularity of Avengers: Infinity War.
And that makes it easy to forget that the epic war against Thanos came on the heels
of the Wakandan success story Black Panther.
The box office domination of Infinity War is pretty easy to explain: the film had incredible
scope and a decade of build-up before its release.
However, Black Panther's similar level of popularity came despite its smaller scope
and new characters.
The point?
Marvel origin stories, especially unique ones, attract crowds.
T'Challa's epic was rooted outside the United States and brought a fresh perspective to
the superhero origin story.
Captain Marvel, in many ways, used a similar formula.
From the female lead character to the Star Wars-esque overtones of its space-centric
plot, Captain Marvel combined the familiar formula of an origin story with the thrill
of the unknown and did it in a universe everyone thinks they already know so well.
In addition to Carol Danvers' origin, it also gave us pieces of Nick Fury's past and even
threw in a little background on fan favorites like Phil Coulson and Ronan the Accuser.
From lead actors to minor supporting characters, the "origin story" element to this one was
about as attractive as it gets.
Another major factor that Captain Marvel had going for it as it entered its opening weekend
was that it introduced a character with an open-ended future.
With over ten years of the MCU under our belts, many of the established characters and storylines
may not be around much longer.
Thanos was teased all the way back in the first Avengers film, while well-established
characters like Tony Stark and Steve Rogers have very uncertain futures.
This makes Carol Danvers a refreshing breath of fresh air.
Not only is she a new face, but she's going to be around for a while.
While the specific status of Brie Larson's deal with Marvel isn't clear, she's definitely
on the hook for more movies to come.
It's a new chapter for the MCU during an era when closure is on everyone's mind.
Of course, when considering various reasons that people would go to watch Captain Marvel,
one of the most obvious factors that certainly helped the film was the fact that, finally,
the MCU has a female lead.
While supporting characters like Black Widow and Scarlet Witch have slowly been working
their way toward headlining projects, it was Carol Danvers' debut that finally integrated
a lead female superhero into the MCU, and audiences turned out in droves to see the
new superheroine step into the spotlight.
"Time to show these boys how we do it.
You ready?"
"Higher, further, faster, baby."
"That's right!"
The biggest reason for the overwhelming success of Captain Marvel is… well, Marvel.
Carol Danvers represents part of a larger universe that everyone can't get enough of.
Whether it's a crossover smash like Infinity War, a continuation of a franchise like Thor:
Ragnarok, or a brand new character like Black Panther or Captain Marvel, there's no doubt
at this point that Marvel has the golden touch.
Very few studios can boast the tremendous depth and scope of planning that Marvel has
brought to the table.
Take Endgame, for example: Its plot revolves around deeply familiar characters like Stark
and Banner, while simultaneously weaving in the arrival of newcomer Captain Marvel.
The complexity and quality are impressive and exactly why everyone ponies up their cash
whenever a new Marvel movie hits theaters.
On a certain level, audiences aren't really concerned with the specifics of any one Marvel
film anymore, they're just going along for the ride.
"You are home, and there is no going back.
No one leaves this place."
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