sidenote - they did a terrible job with Carol Danvers. no one cared about her sequel b/c her subsequent appearances in the MCU have been nothing. she just comes in grumpy faced and kills everything in her path. the one glimpse of character she got was talking to Peter for a half a second in Endgame. Can't help but feel like they're doing the same thing with Shang-chi. When his sequel rolls around will anyone give a shyt? They haven't even stuck him in a stinger scene since his movie.
Me a month ago:
If it does bomb, it'll more-so be an indictment on Feige, the MCU, and Disney for not having a real plan for the character. To the general public, Cap Marvel was a blank slate no one knew nothing about other than she's "apparently" the Wonder Woman/Supergirl for Marvel... which was enough to get the Barbie demo to show up for CM1. (the A:IW stimulus package is moot, bc MCU Spidey ate off Civil War, RDJ, End Game, etc,. That shyt is par the course, but doesn't gurantee lucrative success unless there's an inherent appeal).
Put another way: 150 million budget, peak good will of the MCU brand, blank canvas to make a "superman in space" story with any hot blonde actress in Hollywood... give her any personality bc nobody reads or gives a fukk about actual comic books... yet a stiff, lifeless, mid depiction was the best they could come up with? $1 billion worth of eyes tuning in and that was the product they sold? Tch
Then they shelved her for 90% of End Game (likely bc they didn't have a plan for her or her abilities), when she actually needed screen time with the OGs for audiences to actually get the personality that was shelved in her own solo movie lol. The character will be "blamed" but they sabo'd her bad.
And yes, they're doing/have done the same with Shang Chi.