Even though Marvel movies like The Avengers and Captain America are rated PG-13, advertising related to movie merchandise try to appeal to a younger demographic when they make action figures, Happy Meal toys and other merch based on the characters in the movie.
That means kids who are too young to attend the movies by themselves are nevertheless extremely interested in seeing their favorite superheroes on the big screen, which is a big mistake…for the filmmakers.
Esquire’s Stephen Marche sent an anonymous nine-year-old to see the Avengers (with parental accompaniment, of course) and, long story short, he was not impressed.
The language seems to have been liberally edited by Stephen, but the message is still there between the lines- the new Marvel movies aren’t really for little kids, they’re for adults who grew up reading Marvel comics and want to feel like a kid again.