Considering the misfit team of anti-heroes, shady government ops, Bucky Barnes brooding in a corner, and Yelena Belova expressing her love for Mac and cheese, we all expected MCU’s Thunderbolts* to make some noise at the box office. But turns out, our once-hyped chaos crew has landed in theaters with less thunder and more of a weak drizzle.

With a $180M budget and just $325M at the box office, the math ain’t mathing. It still seems to need $35M to break even—and that’s before we even start talking about profit. What just happened with Thunderbolts*, despite the hype? It seems the movie might end up being a flop with its massive earnings gap.

A closer look at Thunderbolts* box office collection

Bringing in renowned stars like David Harbour and casting Oppenheimer’s Florence Pugh alongside Sebastian Stan didn’t come cheap for Marvel. And that’s...