What Marvel’s Inhumans’ box office means for show’s success

Inhumans' box office

The first receipts are in for Marvel’s Inhumans’ box office returns, and they show that there is some interest in the show. How much? This is where some of the greater debate comes into play.

Following some promotion all over the country and debuting in almost 400 IMAX theaters, the Marvel adaptation drew around $1.5 million in its opening weekend. Note that this is, for now, just an estimate, and it could change over the coming days. Given that this is Labor Day Weekend, the Monday totals may be higher than they typically are. The project drew a decent per-theater average of more than $3,800, which is better than any other film in the top 40 in North America. Given the limited release and the size of the theaters, though, that was largely to be expected. (Also, the remainder of the box office is in the toilet at the moment.)

Are there good takeaways from Inhumans’ box office totals? Sure. This is on par with some other TV series released in IMAX, and it seems as though some negative reviews didn’t impact the show all that much. There were also clearly people willing to pay money to see an all-new show, based on a comic that is only moderately known to mainstream circles. That is a very good sign.

At the same time, however, this new series didn’t exactly set the world on fire, either. While these box-office are decent, we also wouldn’t refer to them as sensational, either. The show didn’t generate some inordinate amount of social-media discussion, and there has to be a fear that the majority of the diehard fans saw this and won’t tune in to watch the premiere episodes a little bit later in the month. Or, maybe they saw this, didn’t enjoy it, and then won’t give the show itself a chance. There is such a layoff between the IMAX debut of Inhumans and also when it’s coming onto ABC, as well.

For now, we call this a moderate success. This was, at the very least, a worthwhile experiment for ABC to make just because of the notion of trying something new in order to premiere a show. ABC needs to get something going when it comes to their relationship with Marvel. While Agents of SHIELD became a great show over the past year and Agent Carter was stellar, the ratings for the latter were woeful and the ratings for the former are starting to get near that territory. We would love to see an injection of viewers coming to the franchise in one form or another.

What’s your team on the Inhumans’ box-office total so far?

Be sure to share some of your early thoughts on that subject in the comments!

Meanwhile, you can head over to the link here in the event that you do want to read up on whether or not there should be some sort of crossover between this show and Agents of SHIELD coming down the line. (Photo: ABC.)

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