It’s box office clobberin’ time — or so Marvel hopes.
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” the 37th installment in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe and third to release in 2025, is aiming for $100 million to $110 million in its opening weekend. The retro-futuristic adventure, starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn as the titular team, is estimated to collect another $90 million to $100 million at the international box office for a global start between $190 million and $210 million.
Those ticket sales are similar to the Warner Bros. DC tentpole “Superman,” which took flight earlier this month with $125 million domestically and $220 million worldwide. Meanwhile projections are slightly above this year’s two prior Marvel entries, February’s “Captain America: Brave New World” with $88.8 million domestically and $181 million worldwide, and May’s “Thunderbolts” with $74 million domestically and $162 million worldwide.
Marvel movies often start strong, but “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Thunderbolts” cratered in subsequent weekends, with the latter becoming one of the lowest-grossing installments in the entire MCU. “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Thunderbolts” tapped out with $415 million and $381 million respectively and ended up as major money-losers against their $180 million production budgets. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” was much more expensive than those films, carrying a price tag above $200 million. So the comic book adaptation needs serious staying power — strong reviews and great word-of-mouth would be helpful — to avoid a similar box office fate and qualify as a hit for Marvel, which has greatly struggled with commercial consistency over the past five years.
Directed by Matt Shakman, “Fantastic Four” follows Reed Richards a.k.a. Mister Fantastic (Pascal), Sue Storm a.k.a. Invisible Woman (Kirby), Ben Grimm a.k.a. The Thing (Moss-Bachrach) and Johnny Storm a.k.a. Human Torch (Quinn) as they protect their world from a planet-devouring cosmic being. Critical sentiment has been positive with Variety’s Peter Debruge declaring that Marvel got “its mojo back.”
“First Steps” doesn’t have to clear a high bar to cement itself as the highest-grossing “Fantastic Four” movie to date. That’s because pior attempts to bring Marvel’s First Family to the big screen weren’t exactly creative or commercial triumphs. Fox’s first two takes, 2005’s “Fantastic Four” ($330 million) and 2007’s “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” ($301 million) starring Jessica Alba and Chris Evans, were financially successful but critically derided. Meanwhile a widely panned 2015 reboot with Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan completely fizzled with $167 million globally.
“Fantastic Four” is this weekend’s only major newcomer, though the comic book tentpole will face competition from “Superman,” which is now in its third week in theaters. After two consecutive weekends at No. 1, the Man of Steel looks to add $28 million to $30 million in its third frame. So far, “Superman” has grossed $243 million domestically and $415 million worldwide.
Movie theater owners are banking on these heroes to pack a collective punch to ride out the dog days of summer.
