“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is off on the right foot at the box office.
Marvel‘s latest comic book adaptation has lifted off with $118 million from 4,125 North American theaters over the weekend. Those ticket sales were slightly ahead of expectations of $100 million to $110 million.
“Fantastic Four,” a retro-futuristic adventure starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn as the titular team, collected another $100 million at the international box office for a global total of $218 million. Directed by Matt Shakman, “Fantastic Four” follows the foursome of Mister Fantastic (Pascal), Invisible Woman (Kirby), The Thing (Moss-Bachrach) and Human Torch (Quinn) as they protect their world from a planet-devouring cosmic being.
Based on initial turnout, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is shaping up to be a needed win for Marvel Studios. The comic book empire, which has become Hollywood’s most reliable hit maker, has greatly struggled with commercial consistency over the past five years. The company has succeeded in post-pandemic times with entries led by familiar faces such as “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” But attempts to put the spotlight on newer characters were major financial missteps. This May’s well-reviewed “Thunderbolts,” for example, ended its theatrical run with $382 million and stands as one of the lowest-grossing installments in Marvel’s 37-film franchise. After inundating viewers with too many interconnected films and television shows, Disney’s CEO Bob Iger has already said there’s a mandate for Marvel to do less at a higher caliber.
“The Fantastic Four” cost above $200 million to produce and needs to keep up the momentum to avoid the fate of other recent Marvel movies like February’s “Captain America: Brave New World” ($100 million debut over four days) and 2023’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” ($106 million) which collapsed after strong starts. However, those films were poorly reviewed. “First Steps” has the benefit of positive word-of-mouth, including an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and encouraging “A-” grade on CinemaScore exit polls. Plus, there’s virtually no competition on the horizon in terms of all-audience tentpoles.
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” got a boost from premium large formats, which delivered a massive 46% of ticket sales. Imax led the way with $16 million domestically or 13.6% of the initial haul, marking the second-highest marketshare ever for an MCU film. In terms of the audience breakdown, nearly 70% of opening weekend crowds identified as male while 42% of all ticket buyers were under the age of 25.
Hollywood has attempted many times to bring The Fantastic Four — known colloquially as Marvel’s first family — to the big screen but none struck the right chord with critics or audiences. The first efforts from 20th Century Fox (which owned the characters prior to the studio’s 2019 merger with Disney) were two decades ago with 2005’s “Fantastic Four” ($330 million) and its sequel 2007’s “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” ($301 million). Those films, starring Jessica Alba and Chris Evans, were financially successful but critically derided. Meanwhile a widely panned 2015 reboot with Miles Teller, Kate Mara and Michael B. Jordan completely fizzled ($167 million globally) in theaters.
“Fantastic Four was a modest and struggling superhero series; it just caught up with the biggest and the best,” says analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” ranks as the year’s fourth-biggest domestic debut following “A Minecraft Movie” ($162 million), “Lilo & Stitch” ($146 million) and “Superman” ($125 million). “Fantastic Four” opened two weekends after fellow superhero tentpole “Superman,” which slid to second place with $24.9 million from 3,930 screens, a 57% decline from its prior outing. The Warner Bros. and DC Studios adaptation has generated $289.5 million domestically and $502.7 million globally.
“‘Fantastic Four’ and ‘Superman’ are performing extremely well,” Gross adds. “Superheroes are showing some swagger, and it’s good news for the industry.”
Third place on domestic box office charts went to Universal’s “Jurassic World Rebirth” with $13 million from 3,550 venues in its fourth frame. The dinosaur epic, which rebooted the long-running property with Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali, has grossed $301 million in North America and $718 million globally. Although these are strong ticket sales — it’s one of only three Hollywood releases to surpass $700 million this year — the latest “Jurassic” has to keep climbing to near the heights of the prior sequel trilogy, all of which grossed $1 billion globally.
Apple’s “F1: The Movie” impressively moved up to the No. 4 spot with $6.2 million in its fifth lap around the track. That’s a 37% decline from the previous weekend, bringing ticket sales to $165.6 million domestically and $509 million worldwide. It’s a very encouraging result for an original, adult-skewing property and ranks as Apple’s highest-grossing movie by a mile. The racing drama, starring Brad Pitt, has a high bar to clear in terms of profitability because the studio spent $250 million to produce the film, not including its global marketing efforts.
Paramount’s animated musical “Smurfs” rounded out the top five with $5.4 million from 3,504 venues, a 50% drop from its disappointing $11 million debut. The family film has earned $22.7 million at the domestic box office and $46 million internationally for a worldwide tally of $69 million. “Smurfs” carries a $58 million price tag.
At No. 6, Sony’s slasher sequel “I Know What You Did Last Summer” added $5.1 million from 3,504 locations — tumbling by 60% from its opening weekend. The film has grossed $23.5 million domestically and $45.5 million globally. Sony spent a modest $18 million to produce the film so it won’t take a ton of coinage to justify its budget.