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'Superman' Director James Gunn Says Disney 'Killed' Marvel Resulting In Flops; Explains How

MENSXP | June 17, 2025 7:39 PM CST

There was a time when Marvel Cinematic Universe was invincible at the box office delivering one box office juggernaut after another with solid critical acclaim.

However, post the end of Phase Three that saw the great sacrifice by Tony Stark aka Iron Man to save humanity, MCU has been on a shaky ground.

In Phase Five, Marvel saw the release of six films out of which three (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels and Thunderbolts*) became outright flops, one (Captain America: Brave New World) underperformed and two (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) were huge hits.

In fact, the latest release Thunderbolts: The New Avengers, despite rave reviews and love from those who watched it, will reportedly end up losing $100 million at the box office.

Now, in an interview, DC Studios’ co-head and Superman director James Gunn who earlier helmed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 for MCU has opened up about the reason behind Marvel Studios failing at the box office.

He blamed Disney’s interference/mandate to increase the output that led to Marvel Studios delivering subpar products and box office flops.

He told Rolling Stone, “That wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. And it killed them. We don’t have the mandate [at DC] to have a certain amount of movies and TV shows every year. So we’re going to put out everything that we think is of the highest quality. We’re obviously going to do some good things and some not-so-good things, but hopefully on average everything will be as high-quality as possible. Nothing goes before there’s a screenplay that I personally am happy with.”

What James Gunn has said now was echoed by Disney chief Bob Iger, last year, when he admitted the mistake with Marvel Studios.

He had stated at Disney’s quarterly earnings call, “We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three. And we’re working hard on what that path is.”

Meanwhile, James Gunn’s first film in DCU, Superman is slated to release in theatres on July 11, 2025.

As for Marvel Studios, their next release is Fantastic Four - The First Steps releasing in theatres on July 25, 2025.