‘Eternals’ soared to the top of the weekend box office chart, buoyed by mania for all things Marvel. But its $71 million debut fell just short of projections of  $75 million.

That’s a sign, perhaps, that the iffy reviews muted ‘Eternals’ results or a signal that the underlying intellectual property, the story of a group of god-like extraterrestrials, didn’t have the resonance of other comic book adaptations, Variety reported from Los Angeles.

Marvel has successfully introduced lesser-known heroes, such as the Guardians of the Galaxy, to movie fans and spawned successful franchises with them, but that series got a lift from critics and also debuted in a time before anyone had ever heard of COVID. So, a much different world order.

‘Eternals’ still managed to score the fourth-best opening weekend for any movie during the pandemic era, sliding in behind Marvel’s own ‘Black Widow’ ($80.3 million) and ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’($75.3 million) as well as ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ ($90 million), which was made by Sony but based on a Marvel comic creation.

It’s an impressive number — and any other studio or feature would be thrilled to have a launch of that size — but for a Marvel venture it’s hard to not view it as falling short of sky-high expectations. Heavy the head that wears the box office crown and all that.

Internationally, ‘Eternals’ took in $90.7 million, bringing its global haul to $161.7 million.

‘Eternals’ is directed by Chloe Zhao, fresh of the Oscar-winning ‘Nomadland’, but reviewers griped that the film is long on exposition and light on entertainment.