Summary
- Captain America: Brave New World receives mixed reviews, with a 30% disparity between critics (50%) and audience (80%) scores.
- Despite critical reception, the film is winning at the box office, surpassing $192 million worldwide within a week.
- Rotten Tomatoes scores may not always reflect a movie’s quality, as audience votes can skew perceptions, especially within the MCU.
Is Captain America: Brave New World the MCU’s most divisive film yet? Well, it seems like it so far, at least according to Rotten Tomatoes. Now showing in theaters worldwide, the Anthony Mackie starrer has received contrasting scores on the review aggregator’s two rating parameters and joins a controversial list, as a result.
It’s become increasingly common for Marvel films to divide fans and critics. Captain America: Brave New World has become another example of this, as the movie has split its audiences. Rotten Tomatoes scores generally hold great value among movie fans. The platform uses two different metrics: the critics’ score, known as the Tomatometer, and the audience score, known as the Popcornmeter. These scores seem to vary hugely for the latest MCU outing.
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Reviewers Have Handed Captain America: Brave New World A Surprising MCU Record
Captain America has scored an unofficial MCU record thanks to some creative choices tying it to the wider franchise, but it’s not a good thing at all.
Captain America: Brave New World Splits Audience
A Huge Gap Between Critics and Fans
As of February 18, 2025, Captain America: Brave New World holds a 50% Tomatometer score from 258 reviews. At the same time, it has a Popcornmeter score of 80% from over 5,000 verified ratings. With a staggering 30% difference between its audience and critics’ scores, the Julius Onah directorial becomes the third-most-polarizing MCU movie in terms of Rotten Tomatoes score disparity, tied with Eternals. Only Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, with a 35% difference, and Captain Marvel, with a 34% difference, rank higher.
|
MCU Movie |
Rotten Tomatoes Score Disparity |
Critics’ Score |
Audience Score |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania |
35% |
46% |
81% |
|
Captain Marvel |
34% |
79% |
45% |
|
Captain America: Brave New World |
30% |
50% |
80% |
|
Eternals |
30% |
47% |
77% |
|
The Marvels |
18% |
62% |
80% |
It also seems to have overtaken most Marvel TV shows streaming on Disney+ as well, except for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. The legal dramedy featuring the green superhero stands out with a whopping 47% gap between its Tomatometer score of 79% and Popcornmeter score of 32%. This recent (mostly post-Endgame) Marvel trend highlights a confusing time for both the franchise and its audience, and it might hold some lessons for the studio to learn.
Captain America 4’s Reviews Are Mixed, But Does It Matter?
Less than a week into its theatrical run, Captain America: Brave New World has received mostly mixed reviews from critics. There are plenty of issues with the film: a weak plot, underdeveloped characters, overreliance on The Incredible Hulk’s plot points from 16 years ago etc. Moreover, it struggles to establish a fresh path for Sam Wilson while also trying to build on the Captain America legacy. The critics’ consensus on Rotten Tomatoes also reflects this clearly:
Anthony Mackie capably takes up Cap’s mantle and shield, but Brave New World is too routine and overstuffed with uninteresting Easter eggs to feel like a worthy standalone adventure for this new Avengers leader.
Brave New World Is Still Winning At The Box Office
However, these reviews clearly don’t seem to matter when it comes to Captain America: Brave New World’s box office performance. As of February 17, 2025, the film has exceeded expectations, earning $192.4 million worldwide – $100 million domestically and $92.4 million overseas. The film reportedly needs to earn $425 million to break even against its $180 million production budget.
But, if the latest Captain America film intends to brave past its mixed critical reception and cross its breakeven point, it needs to achieve something that other poorly-reviewed MCU films haven’t managed to do. Currently, it is the third lowest-rated MCU film on Rotten Tomatoes, behind Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Eternals. Quantumania, which also had a significant disparity between its critics’ and audience scores, ultimately became a box office disappointment, falling nearly $125 million short of its reported breakeven point.
Is The MCU’s Fandom Hurting Its Future?
Audience Scores Don’t Always Mean A Movie Is Good
As ironic as it may sound, the MCU’s success is its own problem. Even if its projects don’t turn out great, they still manage to make a lot of money. More importantly, the franchise has a devoted fan base that will defend any Marvel film or TV show tooth and nail, whether on social media or in real life. That loyalty is clearly reflected on Rotten Tomatoes as well, where audience ratings have consistently remained solid, even when a movie underperforms.
Marvel Films Thrived By Appealing To Everyone
Fans who complain about the MCU’s decline while dismissing critics’ reviews for “not understanding the audience” contradict themselves. To understand this, look at some of the highest-rated MCU films on Rotten Tomatoes. Bona fide Marvel classics like Avengers: Endgame, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier don’t just have critics scores in the high 90s; they also maintain a balance with audience scores.
Clearly, the MCU’s past success came from its ability to satisfy critics, general moviegoers, and serious comic book fans alike. Plus, there are recent examples that prove this as well. Consider movies like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings or Spider-Man: No Way Home, both of which have extremely high Tomatometer and Popcornmeter scores, while also making a huge impact at the box office. Perhaps Deadpool & Wolverine is the only exception, where the disparity between the two scores is notably high, and yet, the film is regarded as one of the MCU’s better outings in recent memory.
Do Rotten Tomatoes Scores Really Reflect Quality?
Marvel Fan Votes Can Skew A Movie’s Perception
A good Rotten Tomatoes score doesn’t necessarily mean a movie is good. For example, within the MCU itself, Black Widow has a 79% critics’ score and a 91% audience score, while Black Panther has a 96% critics’ score but only a 79% audience score. These gaps might be hard to understand, but overall, the scores are generally good indicators of whether a film works as a crowd-pleaser or if it resonates more with critics than the general audience.
|
MCU Phase |
Average Critics’ Score |
Average Audience Score |
|---|---|---|
|
Phase 1 |
80% |
78% |
|
Phase 2 |
81% |
84% |
|
Phase 3 |
89% |
83% |
|
Phase 4 |
75% |
88% |
|
Phase 5* (ongoing) |
63% |
80% |
This becomes even clearer when averaging the Rotten Tomatoes ratings across different phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Moreover, one could argue that audience scores are simply made up of reviews from people who cared enough to visit the website and vote. In other words, these scores primarily come from fans – something Marvel is always brimming with. So, unless a movie is massively review-bombed, the audience score mainly reflects fan reactions rather than the actual quality of the film.
Marvel Must Learn From Captain America: Brave New World
Right now, it’s arguably too early to judge Captain America: Brave New World‘s long-term impact on the MCU. Even before its mixed reviews, the film was plagued by numerous production issues, leading to multiple rewrites and reshoots. However, major projects like Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four are laying the groundwork for the main events of Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. Therefore, Marvel needs to carefully analyze how differently their films are received by general audiences, hardcore fans, and critics to ensure they deliver.