Thunderbolts was directed by Jake Schreier and released into theaters on May 2, 2025. Reportedly, IMDb published a breakdown of Thunderbolts in which it said that the MCU only had around 180 million dollars to make this movie. Still, in order for it to reach its “break-even point” it had to make approximately 360-450 million dollars according to Screen Rant by Felipe Rangel. There can be many speculations as to why Thunderbolts wasn’t a hit in theaters. Overall, though, the movie is considered a flop.  

In an interview with Braden Matthews and Aaron Figueroa, they both said that what makes a movie great is the plotline. “It shows how the whole movie will be portrayed and developed,” Matthews said. Plot lines, big or small, are what capture the audience’s attention, not necessarily at first second, but it keeps the audience watching.

Felipe Rangel reported under the Screen Rant that one hot topic that’s up for debate is whether or not the new Avengers twist came too late to save the MCU. Going along with the theme of mistaken plot points, in the trailer for Thunderbolts, they left out their biggest hero, Bob/The Sentry. Throughout the movie, the Void is slowly taken over by the control of The Sentry, and it ends up being a massive plot point throughout the story. 

Besides the plot line, there were also some more behind-the-scenes problems. Though Marvel is one of the biggest franchises to exist, there haven’t been any box office hits in recent years. With new movies come new crew members to help the movies come alive. As of recent years, the Marvel universe has tried to expand on their crew team, which leads to the speculation that that’s part of the reason movies have been underperforming. Lastly, once the movie Black Widow was released, it was put onto Disney+ relatively quickly compared to other movies.

Thunderbolts inevitably underperformed at the box office. Though there isn’t a way to say what it was exactly, people will continue to speculate as to why this movie wasn’t a bigger hit.