Biggest flop film of 2023 lost 10 times as much money as Adipurush, studio blamed director; lead star earned Rs 40 crore

It’s no state secret that Adipurush was a massive failure at the box office. The film was billed as India’s most expensive film ever with estimates about its production budget ranging from Rs 500-700 crore. But despite the massive hype, big star cast, and Ramayana theme, it failed massively. Industry insiders called it Indian cinema’s biggest box office bomb. And yet, its losses seem insignificant in comparison with 2023’s biggest flop, which led to a cold war between its director and producer.

Biggest flop of 2023, which lost Rs 2500 crore

The Marvels, MCU’s latest superhero film, has emerged as the first-ever box office flop of the franchise. The film is part of Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 5 and a direct sequel to Captain Marvel as well as the Disney+ show Ms Marvel. Yet, it became the first MCU film ever to stay below $100 million in box office earnings in North America. It’s worldwide gross has hovered around $250 million, a low mark for the MCU. As per reports, The Marvels has lost anything between $260-300 million (Rs 2100-2500 crore) to Disney, the studio heading Marvel Studios. In comparison, Adipurush lost around Rs 225-250 crore at the box office, a much smaller number.

The fallout of The Marvels’ box office failure

The Marvels had mixed reviews but MCU films with worse reviews have fared better. Earlier last year itself, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania saw worse reviews than The Marvels but was still able to gross over $400 million worldwide and recover its costs. Many have argued that the film’s failure is due to a superhero fatigue in the audience. Disney, however, lay the blame on the film’s makers. Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement that the film’s failure was due to their executives not supervising the project well, implying that director Nia DaCosta was to be blamed. Many industry insiders have defended DaCosta from the thinly-veiled attack, pointing out that The Marvels is not the only failure for MCU of late.

Brie Larson’s payday from The Marvels

Brie Larson made her debut in the MCU full-time with Captain Marvel, the franchise’s first woman-led fiolm. It surprised everyone by grossing over a billion dollars worldwide. Larson, then not a star, had earned $5 million (around Rs 40 crore) for the film. So despite her success since, it was surprising that the actress returned to The Marvels with the same pay, as per The Hollywood Reporter. Her two co-stars Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani earned even less, at $1 million (Rs 8 crore) and $550k (Rs 4.5 crore) respectively.