"The Marvels" didn't crash and burn at the box office this past weekend due to superhero fatigue. Nor was it the lowest opening weekend in MCU history because fans were rebelling against the female-driven ensemble -- the gender makeup in North America over the opening weekend was 61% male and 39% female.

Instead, the film limped to a $46.1 million opening weekend due to a number of factors including declining trust in the Marvel brand, all of which speak to an existential challenge for Marvel Studios: Make Marvel special again.

"Disney made a bet that intertwining multiple TV shows and movies each year would keep audiences coming back for more," Bruce Nash, founder and publisher of box-office data site The Numbers, told TheWrap. "Instead of making each new movie an event, that's ended up driving audiences away from the franchise."

But "The Marvels" also suffered from what came directly before it. Aside from "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," the recent string of Marvel movies have been disappointing. "The Marvels" is just the fourth MCU movie -- all within the last two years -- to earn below 65% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes due to its lackluster reviews.

Its B CinemaScore grade among opening night audiences tied with "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" and "Eternals" as the lowest ever for an MCU title. The slew of less-than-beloved features -- including "Thor: Love and Thunder" in the summer of 2022 -- may have lessened the trust that general audiences have for a brand that once promised a certain level of character-driven showmanship and spectacle.