‘The Marvels’ Director Names the Real Reason It Bombed In the Box Office
The Marvels’ Nia DaCosta never saw what was behind one of Marvel’s biggest failures, and it was Alex Garland’s dystopian franchise that helped figure it out.
It’s been a long time since Marvel had its best time in the box office, and Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels was one of those blockbusters that started the long and seemingly endless chain of the studio’s failures in the box office.
With a budget of $374 million, the movie went on to earn $206 million only, becoming the MCU’s lowest-grossing project of all time.
However, it took a couple of years and another potentially successful movie for DaCosta to understand where the issue was lying — and it seems like there won’t be one with her sequel to Alex Garland’s hit movie of this year.
Nia DaCosta Blames “Lack of a Really Solid Script” for ‘The Marvels’ Box Office Failure
Though it was her and WandaVision’s Megan McDonnell who helmed The Marvels’ script and connected it to some of the most famous characters out there in the MCU, now DaCosta feels like the movie’s writing really needed a much bigger improvement — especially when compared to her next directorial work 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple written by Alex Garland.
“Making the 28 Years Later sequel was one of the best filmmaking experiences I’ve had. One of the issues I had with Candyman and Marvels was the lack of a really solid script, which is always gonna just wreak havoc on the whole process”, DaCosta revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter recently.
She also added that she’d seen the difference when realised that Alex Garland’s script for The Bone Temple doesn’t need any changes except for one small detail.
“Alex Garland hands you a script, and you’re like, ‘This is amazing.’ You don’t really have to change it, although I did, I basically asked for more infected. That was, like, my big contribution”, the director stated jokingly.
Nia DaCosta to Direct a Follow-Up to Alex Garland’s ’28 Years Later’
- On Rotten Tomatoes, 28 Years Later holds scores of 88% and 64% from critics and audiences
- On IMDb, the movie is rated 6.7/10
Already regarded as one of the best zombie movies, 28 Years Later was released as another sequel to 2002’s 28 Days Later this year, grossing $150 million against its $60 million budget.
The Bone Temple isn’t yet done with its production, though there have already been talks about a possible sequel to the movie, with Cillian Murphy reprising his role of Jim from 28 Days Later.
Even though the original film has spent decades as a solo instalment in a long-discussed franchise (if we don’t count the first ever sequel 28 Weeks Later), now it seems like 28 Days Later has turned into one of the biggest horror franchises that DaCosta has been a huge fan of for years.
“28 Days Later was one of my seminal films growing up… I had the DVD in my house. I watched it all the time. Obviously, fell in love with Cillian Murphy. And Danny Boyle is a bonkers f—king filmmaker. No one else can make a Danny Boyle film, and that was actually the biggest part of my pitch for the movie”, she added.
So far, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is set to be released worldwide on January 16, 2026.
