‘The Marvels’ Star Iman Vellani Discusses Box Office Flop: “I Don’t Want To Focus On Something That’s Not Even In My Control…That’s for Bob Iger”

The Marvels now looks to be the biggest box office flop in Marvel Cinematic Universe history, but 21-year-old star Iman Vellani says that doesn’t concern her: “I don’t want to focus on something that’s not even in my control, because what’s the point? That’s for Bob Iger.”

Vellani reprises her role as Kamala Khan from the Disney+ television series Ms. Marvel in her big screen debut. Vellani continued her comments on the box office flop in an interview with Yahoo Entertainment stating, “[The box office] has nothing to do with me…I’m happy with the finished product, and the people that I care about enjoyed the film. It’s genuinely a good time watching the movie, and that’s all we can ask for with these films.”

Opening to $47 million domestically, The Marvels now has the lowest opening weekend in MCU history. Before that, 2008’s The Incredible Hulk had the worst debut at $55.4 million (not adjusted for inflation). The Marvels also holds the MCU’s record for the biggest second-weekend drop, earning $10.2 million and constituting a drastic 78% drop. Before that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania held the record with a 69.9% drop. At this rate, it’s likely that The Marvels will not reach $100 million in the domestic box office.

In her interview with Yahoo, Vellani also mentioned Stephen King’s tweets in defense of The Marvels, stating that “having Stephen King in anyone’s corner is pretty awesome.” 

Despite not being a fan of the MCU, the horror author wrote, “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. Why gloat over failure?” 

In a separate tweet, King added, “Some of the rejection of ‘The Marvels’ may be adolescent fanboy hate. You know, ‘Yuck! GIRLS!’”

On the topic of rejection of MCU films, Vellani mentioned some of her experiences in high school before she was a star: “When I would share my excitement with someone…they’d immediately shut me down for being so excited. 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.”

Jaylen Briece: Jaylen Briece Moulton is a recent graduate from the University of Chicago, where she double-majored in Germanic Studies as well as Cinema and Media Studies. She is originally from Los Angeles, where her love of film grew, and she hopes to be part of the thriving film scene there someday.
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