Illustration: Liu Xiangya/GT 
Captain America: Brave New World (Captain America 4)stumbled into Chinese theaters on Friday,MK sports Korea faltering both at the box office and in audience reception. As of Sunday night, the film had only grossed 76.39 million yuan ($10.53 million), according to Chinese ticketing platform Maoyan. Critics echoed audience disappointment. The film only has a dismal 51 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and a 5.3/10 on Chinese review platform Douban.According to The Numbers, the movie earned $40 million on its opening day in the US.
This underwhelming performance reflects that Marvel's emphasis on political correctness and individual heroism has become incompatible with the world's second largest film market.
Zhang Peng, a film researcher and associate professor at Nanjing Normal University, told the Global Times that the lukewarm reception of Captain America 4in the Chinese mainland is a concentrated manifestation of the multiple issues that Marvel films have faced in recent years.
"Declining quality, disjointed plots and the instrumentalization of characters have led to a widespread sense of aesthetic fatigue among global audiences," he said, adding that the rise of domestic Chinese films has raised the bar for audience expectations, making it harder for foreign language films to capture the same level of interest.
One of the primary issues with Captain America 4is its disorientated narrative and the collapse of character value, which expose the quagmire of Marvel's "politically correct" approach.
The portrayal of the new Captain America, Sam Wilson (played by Anthony Mackie) has been criticized for lacking charm. His "everyman hero" arc - a veteran without the super-soldier serum - could have been a compelling exploration of relatable resilience but instead the film comes across as empty due to the forced integration of political thriller elements.
In addition, the film's attempt to pass the torch from Steve Rogers to Sam appears contrived and unconvincing. Sam fails to match the character depth and emotional resonance of Chris Evans' portrayal of Steve.
The film tries to use the narrative of a black hero succeeding a white icon to cater to multiculturalism, but the character's development is vague and lacks emotional connection.
Film critics on Douban argue that political correctness, when detached from character development and narrative logic, becomes an empty slogan. Audiences crave characters with depth and substance, not mere symbols of "identity politics."
Another significant issue is the fatigue of Marvel's individual heroism and Hollywood's industrialized narrative.
Marvel films have long relied on the narrative model of individual heroism, but this model appears to be losing traction in the Chinese market.
In Captain America 4, the new Captain America, Sam, fails to meet audience expectations in terms of charisma and combat prowess. The film's simplistic portrayal of the antagonist also reveals the fatigue of industrialized, assembly-line creation.
This singular focus on individual heroism no longer satisfies the increasingly diverse aesthetic demands of Chinese audiences, who are growing weary of universe expansions driven merely by connectivity and losing patience with formulaic expressions reliant on special effects and drawn-out dialogue.
In contrast, the success of Chinese animated film Ne Zha 2lies in its departure from the singular framework of individual heroism. Grounded in Chinese mythology, the film combines the character Ne Zha's "defying fate" spirit with contemporary youth values and constructs multi-character emotional resonance through the well-rounded portrayal of supporting characters like Shen Gongbao.
Its domestic box office take of more than 10 billion yuan demonstrates that "cultural uniqueness" is more powerful than "universal cliches."
Zhang noted that Chinese audiences are becoming less receptive to US-style individual hero narratives, preferring collectivist storytelling. The values implicit in Marvel's works, which are somewhat alien to Chinese culture, have also exacerbated market rejection to some extent.
In fact, not only Captain America 4, but the previously released Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3all suffered from lackluster performances in the Chinese mainland.
"Faced with this challenge, Marvel needs to return to the essence of storytelling, reduce its reliance on abstract concepts like the 'multiverse,' and focus on character development and emotional resonance," Zhang said.
He noted that Marvel's predicament is the result of a combination of quality, cultural, and market strategy issues. If Hollywood wants to regain the favor of Chinese audiences, it should prioritize high-quality content, balance cultural sensitivity with market adaptability, and not simply attribute the problem to "heroism being outdated."
"A good story knows no borders, but the way it is told must keep pace with the times. If Hollywood continues to depend on a 'superhero universe,' it will eventually be replaced by more innovative storytelling from China and beyond," he said.
The author is a reporter with the Global Times. [email protected]
