“Fantastic Four: First Steps” Opens to Strong Box Office, aiming to Revitalize Marvel’s Recent Performance
Marvel’s latest cinematic offering, “Fantastic Four: First Steps,” has debuted with a promising domestic opening of $95 million and a global total of $210 million, surpassing the initial box office performance of this year’s prior Marvel releases, “Captain America: Brave New World” ($88.8 million domestic, $181 million worldwide) and “Thunderbolts” ($74 million domestic, $162 million worldwide).
While Marvel films are known for their strong starts, “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Thunderbolts” experienced important drops in subsequent weekends. “Thunderbolts” ultimately became one of the lowest-grossing installments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,with both films concluding their theatrical runs with $415 million and $381 million respectively. These figures fell short of recouping their significant $180 million production budgets, resulting in considerable financial losses. “Fantastic Four: First Steps,” with a production budget exceeding $200 million, requires sustained audience engagement, bolstered by positive reviews and strong word-of-mouth, to avoid a similar box office outcome and contribute to Marvel’s recent efforts to achieve greater commercial consistency over the past five years.
Directed by Matt Shakman, “Fantastic Four: First Steps” features Pedro Pascal as Reed richards (Mister Fantastic), Saoirse Ronan as sue Storm (invisible Woman), Barry Keoghan as Ben Grimm (The Thing), and Paul Mescal as Johnny Storm (Human Torch). The film centers on the team’s efforts to defend their world from a cosmic entity threatening planetary destruction. Early critical reception has been largely positive, with Variety’s Peter debruge noting that Marvel has “gotten its mojo back.”
“First steps” has already established itself as the highest-grossing “Fantastic Four” movie to date, surpassing previous cinematic attempts. Earlier iterations of Marvel’s First Family on the big screen included Fox’s 2005 “Fantastic Four,” which grossed $330 million, and its 2007 sequel, “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” which earned $301 million. While these films achieved financial success, they were met with critical disapproval. A 2015 reboot starring Miles Teller, Kate Mara, and Michael B. Jordan garnered widespread criticism and a global box office total of $167 million.
As the sole major new release this weekend,”Fantastic Four: First Steps” will contend with “Superman,” which is currently in its third week of release. “Superman” is projected to earn an additional $28 million to $30 million, bringing its domestic total to $243 million and its worldwide gross to $415 million after two consecutive weekends at the top of the box office.
The strong performance of these superhero films offers a positive outlook for movie theater owners, who are relying on these blockbusters to drive attendance during the summer season.
