In its version of Marc by Marc Jacobs, Marvel’s The Marvels, the company’s latest and reportedly far from greatest installment in its cinematic universe, hits theaters today. It’s projected to be a spectacular flop by Marvel’s lofty standards: The film reportedly cost $250 million and is only expected to pull in $75 million–$80 million this weekend. That’d continue an underwhelming streak for the once-dominant Disney brand.

What went wrong? A report from Variety details a hot mess at Marvel, especially in its preproduction decision-making. Scripting oversights allegedly led to four weeks of reshoots for The Marvels. And it doesn’t sound like the plot will save the day: The New York Times’s review of this 33rd MCU film is titled “You’ve Seen This Movie 32 Times Before.”

The Marvels is one of several problems at Marvel

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania disappointed at the box office in February, and now potential sequels and spinoffs are in jeopardy as star Jonathan Majors—on whom Marvel was relying for the next phase of the MCU—faces domestic violence charges.

The movie’s CGI was considered embarrassingly bad, likely because Marvel executives moved up its release by more than four months, sending visual effects artists scrambling. Marvel’s VFX workers voted to unionize in September, citing 14-hour workdays and no overtime.

And that’s not all:

• Marvel released 10 movies in the past two years (upping its 2010s output of one to two annually) and drastically expanded its TV offerings, prompting Disney CEO Bob Iger to admit they had done too much too quickly.
• One Marvel show, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, premiered with numerous CGI gaffes—despite costing $25 million for one episode, which was more than an episode of Game of Thrones in its final season.

Souring on superheroes: Some worry that Marvel has oversaturated the genre and forced people to lose interest in superheroes in general. Recent releases from rival studio DC like Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, and Blue Beetle all floundered at the box office, too.—ML

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Sen. Joe Manchin won’t run for reelection in 2024. The moderate Democrat from West Virginia made his intentions known in a video posted on X. Instead of running for a fourth term, the 76-year-old said he will travel the US “to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together.” Manchin, who was the deciding vote for last year’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act, has refused to rule out a third-party run for president in 2024 as the nominee for No Labels, a centrist political group for the “politically homeless.” Manchin’s decision likely hurts Democrats’ chances of maintaining their narrow majority in the Senate.

Israel agrees to four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in fighting. The pauses started Thursday in northern Gaza, according to the White House, which said Israel would announce each four-hour window at least three hours in advance to allow civilians to flee from its military assault on Hamas. In a rare criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Biden told reporters that the pauses should have come sooner. He also pushed for multiday stoppages instead of hourslong ones and said there’s currently “no possibility” for a formal cease-fire.

Biden backs unionization efforts at Tesla and Toyota. Following the historic contracts between the United Auto Workers and the Big Three automakers, President Biden said he supports the group’s attempt to unionize workers at the two companies. UAW President Shawn Fain wants to parlay the gains made from UAW’s strike against the Big Three to target nonunion manufacturers, including Tesla and Toyota. Biden met with Fain last night at an event in Illinois to celebrate the reopening of a Stellantis plant and the union’s new contracts.

Stealing a sign from mile marker 420? Tired. Stealing a sign at a college football game? Wired.

Tomorrow, Michigan will face Penn State in the Wolverines’ biggest game of the season so far. But the real intrigue is off the field, where the NCAA is investigating former Michigan recruiting analyst Connor Stalions for allegedly traveling around the country to scout future opponents at games.

Why is this a scandal? Unlike in the NFL, college football players can’t have radios in their helmets to receive the plays from their coaches. So, in order to relay calls, coaches hold up what are essentially giant poster boards with secret meanings. While it’s common for teams to research their opponents’ signs by watching publicly available game footage, it’s illegal to scout them live and in person thanks to a 1994 NCAA bylaw intended to prevent an advantage to wealthier schools with larger staffs.

For Michigan’s alleged tomfoolery—believed to be committed mostly by Stalions and a group of budget 007s with iPhones—there’s a price to pay: The Big Ten Conference could move to suspend head coach Jim Harbaugh or withhold lucrative TV and bowl game revenue from the school, per CBS Sports.

Going forward…it’s still unclear what action the NCAA will take when it finishes its investigation. But the fiasco has resurfaced questions about allowing college football to use radio systems, which would eliminate the use of signs altogether. Michigan alleged that other teams cheat, and warned that punishing the school or its staff would set a precedent the NCAA doesn’t want.—CC

We will be subjected to the Wonka press tour. The actors union reached a tentative deal Wednesday night with the studios to end the 118-day strike—the longest in the union’s history, which shut down Hollywood for months alongside a writers strike that ended in September. What little we know about the deal so far hints that the actors are getting significant pay bumps and AI regulation.

But entertainment CEOs weren’t the only ones facing walkouts this year. Here’s what workers won during hot strike summer:

• The United Auto Workers reached a deal with carmakers that included 30% pay bumps for most workers.
• The largest healthcare strike in US history got Kaiser Permanente workers a 21% pay increase over four years and a $25/hour minimum wage in California and $23 elsewhere in the US.

Workers didn’t even have to walk off the job: Just the threat of strikes also led to pay and benefit bumps.

• UPS delivered $175,000 salary and benefit packages to avoid a massive service disruption.
• American Airlines agreed to increase pilot pay by over 46%.
• And 25,400 members of the Culinary Union will receive pay raises from MGM Resorts in Las Vegas.

Big picture: With Ws for workers piling up, some economists argue unions might be the key to reducing wage inequality.—MM

Stat: Honey, I shrunk the US population. According to the latest Census Bureau data, the US population is projected to shrink by the year 2100, which would be only the second decline in the country’s history (the other occurred in 1918 due to the Spanish flu and World War I). Annual population growth rates have dropped from about 1.2% in the 1990s to just 0.5% today. The culprits: declining birth rates and an aging population. The US could even be topped by Pakistan or Nigeria as the third-biggest country by the middle of the century, per UN projections. The anticipated shrinkage means immigration will be essential for any hopes of continued growth. And yet, the US is still growing faster than many other high-income nations, some of which, like Japan and Italy, are already losing population.

Quote: “Wrote a song for this that I will share on my next stream.”

Dan Clancy is just built different. The Twitch CEO revealed yesterday that he was finally accepted into the livestreaming platform’s partner program, which is reserved for the most popular creators to share in the advertising revenue generated by their streams. Clancy failed on his first attempt to qualify, and because he’s a hip, music-playing CEO (and former theater major, which explains a lot), he never gave himself special treatment. Clancy’s streaming ambitions are considered part of his attempt to charm top streamers who are upset with the increase in ads on the platform.

Read: Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are backing a new sports league that’s reinventing golf as high-energy, made-for-TV entertainment. (Wired)

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s Weekly News Quiz has been compared to remembering not to say “you too” when your Uber driver says “have a nice flight.”

It’s that satisfying. Ace the quiz.

Watch: The first trailer for World War II series Masters of the Air, Steven Spielberg’s long-awaited follow-up to Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

Strike it rich: How to check if that $2 bill you’ve kept in the back of a drawer for 15 years is actually worth more than $2.

Explore: All national parks will be free to visit tomorrow in honor of Veterans Day.

Get a bigger boat: See where Jaws and Network rank on this list of the top 100 movies of the 1970s.

Solving the lithium shortage: Demand for lithium is projected to soar 20x by 2040, and today’s supply can’t meet that demand. EnergyX’s technology is changing that. Invest in EnergyX.*

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