Fantastic Four: Marvel Studios’ new superhero film ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ has had a great start at the box office. The film has been released in 4,125 theaters in North America and has earned $118 million (about ₹980 crores), which is much higher than the initial estimates ($100-110 million).
The film also performed well internationally and earned $100 million from the international market, taking its total earnings to $218 million (about ₹1,800 crores). Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Backerak and Joseph Quinn have played the characters of the ‘Fantastic Four’ team in the film. Director Matt Shakman’s film tells the story of four superheroes – Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, The Thing and Human Torch – who save the Earth from a dangerous enemy that swallows up the entire universe.
Relief news for Marvel
After delivering consecutive hits in the last few years, Marvel Studios recently faced several flops. Big films like “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, “Deadpool and Wolverine” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” did well, but films based on new characters failed at the box office.
The recently released “Thunderbolts*” earned only $382 million, which is considered one of Marvel’s weakest films ever. After all this, Disney CEO Bob Iger has clearly said that from now on his focus will be on fewer but quality projects.
“Fantastic Four” has a budget of over $200 million, and to be a hit, it will have to keep up this momentum so that it doesn’t flop like films like “Captain America: Brave New World” or “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” However, “First Steps” is benefiting from positive reviews – an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an A- grade on CinemaScore.
Premium formats boost box office collections
Premium screen formats played a key role in the film’s opening, accounting for 46% of the total collections. IMAX alone grossed $16 million, the second-highest ever for an MCU film.
In terms of audience numbers, 70% of the opening weekend audience was male and 42% was under the age of 25.
Fantastic Four has had its share of failed attempts before
There have been attempts to bring the “Fantastic Four” to Hollywood before, but those films failed to win over audiences or critics. The films released in 2005 and 2007 under 20th Century Fox did earn money, but received poor reviews. While, the 2015 reboot was a complete flop.
“Fantastic Four has finally found its place, and that too among the biggest names,” says Franchise Entertainment Research analyst David A. Gross.
Fourth-biggest opening of the year
‘First Steps’ has become the fourth-biggest domestic opening of the year, behind only “A Minecraft Movie” ($162 million), “Lilo & Stitch” ($146 million) and “Superman” ($125 million).
‘Superman’, which released two weeks ago, has now slipped to second place with $24.9 million. Its domestic box office collection has reached $289.5 million and $502.7 million globally.
“Fantastic Four and Superman are both doing well. The return of superheroes is good news for the film industry,” says Gross.
Top 5 Box Office Movies of the Week
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps – $118 million
- Superman – $24.9 million
- Jurassic World Rebirth – $13 million
- F1: The Movie – $6.2 million
- Smurfs (animated musical) – $5.4 million
Jurassic World Rebirth starring Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey has grossed $718 million globally so far. Brad Pitt’s “F1: The Movie” has become Apple Studios’ biggest film ever with $509 million.
Films like Paramount’s “Smurfs” and Sony’s “I Know What You Did Last Summer” are performing poorly, but their budgets are also low, so the losses won’t be much.
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