Stephen King Admits He Doesn’t “Care For” Marvel Films, But Finds ‘The Marvels’ Backlash To Be “Very Unpleasant”: It “May Be Adolescent Fanboy Hate”

Stephen King criticized Marvel fans for “gloating” over The Marvels box office performance, saying it reminded him of “adolescent fanboy hate.”

The famed author clarified that his comments were not because he cared much for Marvel films, but because he found the backlash The Marvels has been facing to be “very unpleasant.”

“I don’t go to MCU movies, don’t care for them, but I find this barely masked gloating over the low box office for The Marvels very unpleasant,” King wrote on X on Sunday (Nov. 12), just two days after the film made its theater debut. “Why gloat over failure?”

He added in a separate tweet, “Some of the rejection of The Marvels may be adolescent fanboy hate. You know, ‘Yuck! GIRLS!’”

King may be the only person coming to Marvel’s defense at this point, with everyone from Martin Scorsese to Jeremy Allen White criticizing the studio.

The Marvels debuted with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 61 percent, and per reports from trade publications, noticeably underperformed in the box office.

The Marvels is the sequel to Brie Larson‘s Captain Marvel, which shows her superhero teaming up with relative Marvel newcomers Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris). In The Marvels, the trio’s superpowers get tangled up, forcing them to work together to save the world.

Since its premiere on Friday (Nov. 10), The Marvels has only grossed $109 million worldwide against the film’s reported budget of $270 million, opening with a $46 million haul domestically this weekend, the lowest opening weekend in MCU history.

This is the second major Marvel release to hit theaters and underperform in the box office.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania earned $476 million worldwide after it premiered in early 2023.

The Marvels is now playing everywhere in theaters.