The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) finds itself at the top of the box office again with Disney’s The Marvels but it might be hard to claim that the film performed higher, further or faster than its predecessors.
The 33rd movie in the ever-expansive MCU took in $US47 million ($A74 million) in North America in its opening weekend, according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore.
It also nabbed the unwanted distinction of having the worst opening box-office tally for an MCU film, finishing behind 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, which scored $US55.4 million ($A87.1 million) with its opening.
The superhero flick flew past a two-time box-office champion, Universal Pictures’ Five Nights at Freddy’s, which raked in $US9 million ($A14 million) in the US and Canada in its third weekend.
The horror flick now has a domestic cumulative of $US127.2 million ($A199.9 million).
The Marvels performed well below initial box office projections that had it bringing in between $US60 million ($A94 million) to $65 million domestically.
Internationally, the super-powered film hauled in $US63.3 million ($A99.5 million) according to studio estimates, for a worldwide total of $US110.3 million ($A173.4 million).
Rounding out the weekend’s domestic box office were Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, biopic Priscilla and Killers of the Flower Moon.
Directed by Nia DaCosta, The Marvels finds Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), aka Captain Marvel, dealing with the fallout of an unstable and unpredictable universe that sees a revolutionary attempting to seize control.
Danvers is joined by fellow superheroes Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), aka Ms Marvel, and Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) on a mission to bring down the insurgent.
The film also stars Samuel L Jackson, Zawe Ashton and Park Seo-joon.
The film scored a lukewarm 63 per cent critic score and a welcoming 85 per cent audience score on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.
“The film flies but never lets any emotional weight fully land,” Tribune News Service film critic Katie Walsh said.
