Oh, Marvel. You used to be bulletproof. Now? You're blaming your problems on an actor who left five years ago.
Kevin Feige's latest excuse for Captain America: Brave New World bombing at the box office? “The first without Chris Evans.” That's it. No nuance. No mention of the messy reshoots, the lukewarm script, or the fact that nobody asked for Red Hulk in 2025. Just… Steve Rogers wasn't here, so people didn't care.
Let's break this down like a bad CGI fight scene:
The Numbers Don't Lie (But Feige Might)
- Budget: $180M
- Global Box Office: $415M (barely 2.3x its budget—a disaster by Marvel standards)
- For Comparison:
- Winter Soldier (2014): $714M
- Civil War (2016): $1.15 BILLION
- Even The Marvels (2023) made $206M—half of Brave New World's total—and that was considered a historic flop.
So yeah, calling this “underperformance” is like calling Thanos “kind of a jerk.”
The Real Reasons It Bombed
- The Script Was a First Draft Masquerading as a Movie
- Critics called it “a Wikipedia plot with MCU branding” (Rotten Tomatoes: 46%).
- Sam Wilson's arc felt recycled from Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but with less depth.
- Harrison Ford's Red Hulk? Cool in theory. In execution? A CGI mess with zero emotional weight.
- Reshoots Gutted the Movie
- Tim Blake Nelson's Leader was reshot three times (one version had him as a joke, another as a horror villain).
- Liv Tyler's Betty Ross scenes were cut to shreds.
- Rumors say the original third act involved a Secret Invasion tie-in (thank God that got axed).
- Nobody Wants to Pay for “Wait for Disney+” Movies
- The film hit streaming (Disney+, May 28, 2025) in under 90 days.
- Why spend $50 at the theater when you can watch it at home while doomscrolling?
- Marvel Fatigue Is Real (And This Proves It)
- Brave New World had zero cultural impact. No memes. No debates. Just… apathy.
- Even hardcore fans shrugged: “It's fine, I guess?”
Was Feige Right?
Missing Evans hurt, sure. But blaming him is like a chef blaming a bad meal on “the salt being too salty.” The real issue? Marvel forgot how to make movies people actually want to see.
Sam Wilson deserved better. The audience deserved better. And Chris Evans? He's probably laughing his way to the bank, glad he got out when he did.
Brave New World didn't fail because Evans wasn't in it. It failed because it wasn't good. And until Feige admits that? Expect more flops.
