Marvel’s First Family might not save the day after all. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is quickly losing steam in its second weekend, signaling the comic book adventure isn’t connecting at the box office beyond the film’s core demographic of superhero fans.
After a healthy $117.6 million debut, “The Fantastic Four” suffered a hefty 66% drop in its sophomore outing with $40 million from 4,125 theaters. Heading into the weekend, box office analysts anticipated a decline of 55% to 60% from its opening. (By comparison, “Superman” dropped by 53% in its second weekend after launching to $125 million earlier in July.) This painful fall is surprising because the Marvel tentpole has the benefit of positive reviews and word-of-mouth, as well as a clear runway in terms of competition.
Although those ticket sales were enough to rank as No. 1 on North American charts, “The First Steps” endured one of the steeper second-weekend drops for Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, better than “The Marvels” (down 78%) but in the company of February’s “Captain America: Brave New World” (down 68%), 2023’s “Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (down 70%) and 2022’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” (down 67%).
So far, “Fantastic Four” has generated $198 million domestically and $368 million globally. Luckily for Marvel, whose output has been wildly inconsistent in post-pandemic times, “The First Steps” is pacing to outgross this year’s prior theatrical disappointments of “Captain America: Brave New World” ($415 million globally) and “Thunderbolts” ($382 million globally). The final tally for “Fantastic Four” won’t be disastrous, à la “The Marvels” ($206 million) or “Thunderbolts,” but it’s not yet a return to box office glory for Marvel. However, the MCU should officially regain its box office stride with its next three films — 2026’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “Avengers: Doomsday” and 2027’s “Avengers: Secret Wars.”
“‘Fantastic Four’ is not a top-tier Marvel franchise. Never has been,” says analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations. “Remember, this ramps up into ‘Avengers.’ That’s the real payoff.”
Three new movies opened nationwide, but none were competing for the same audience as “Fantastic Four.” Among new releases, Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s heist comedy “The Bad Guys 2” enjoyed the strongest start with $22.8 million from 3,852 venues. That’s directly even with the first film, which opened to $23 million in 2022 at a time when cinemas were majorly struggling to recover from COVID and studios were barely releasing any movies. The original film eventually powered to $250 million worldwide. “The Bad Guys 2,” which cost $80 million and follows a group of reformed criminals who relapse for one final con job, was embraced by audiences with an “A” grade on CinemaScore exit polls. Overseas, “The Bad Guys 2” landed with $16.3 million for a global total of $44.5 million.
“This is a good opening for an animation sequel,” says analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. “With this kind of business, the movie is doing what it’s supposed to do.”
Love Film & TV?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.
At No. 3, Paramount’s slapstick comedy “The Naked Gun” debuted to $17 million from 3,344 theaters, right in line with projections. The film earned another $11.5 million at the international box office, bringing its global tally to $28.5 million. It’s a promising start given the dearth of theatrical comedies. Akiva Schaffer of the Lonely Island fame directed the film, which carries a $42 million price tag.
Critics and moviegoers dug “The Naked Gun,” in which Liam Neeson stars as bumbling L.A. detective Frank Drebin Jr. (son of the late Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin, his predecessor in the “Naked Gun” trilogy) alongside Pamela Anderson and Paul Walter Hauser. The movie scored an “A-” grade on CinemaScore and boasts a 90% average on Rotten Tomatoes, both of which should bode well for the remainder of its theatrical run. “The Naked Gun” appealed almost squarely to older white men; 62% of initial crowds were male, 50% were above 35 years old and 70% were Caucasian.
This weekend’s final newcomer, Neon’s body-horror nightmare “Together” landed in sixth place with $6.8 million over the traditional weekend and an encouraging $10.8 million during its first five days of release. Real-life husband and wife Dave Franco and Alison Brie star in “Together” as a co-dependent couple who become frighteningly close after a mysterious force causes horrific body changes. Audiences gave the film a “C+” on CinemaScore, though that harsh a grade isn’t surprising since they likely left the theater feeling very disturbed. In fact, Neon has been leaning into the on-screen trauma to promote the movie, offering free couples therapy for partners who see “Together” during opening weekend. Neon shelled out $17 million to buy the movie at Sundance, marking one of the richest deals in the festival’s history.
“A lukewarm audience score is typical of these films and generally has little effect on how they play out,” Gross says. “It’s [a] smart horror production that’s going to be profitable when it’s finished.”
Elsewhere at the box office, “Superman” descended to fourth place with $13.9 million in its fourth weekend of release. The Warner Bros. and DC Studios adaptation has generated $316.2 million domestically and $551.2 million globally to date.
Universal’s “Jurassic World Rebirth” rounded out the top five with $8.4 million in its fifth weekend of release. The dinosaur epic, which rebooted the long-running property with Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali, has grossed $317 million in North America and $766 million globally.
Overall, the box office is 9.5% ahead of last year but 23% behind 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, according to Comscore. Summer revenues just hit $3 billion from May through early August, so it’s a question of whether this could be the second summer in post-COVID times — the year of “Barbenheimer” was the first — to cross the $4 billion milestone.
“A solid home stretch of the summer is in the cards,” predicts senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “The $4 billion benchmark is still about a $1 billion away, which is no cake walk but potentially in play.”
From Variety US