Following the disappointing performance of “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Thunderbolts*”, Marvel Studios has one last chance on a cash win this year with “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” Fortunately, for Disney, the prospects are as sunny as many of the scenes in MCU’s latest film.
All tracking points to an opening of $ 100 million plus for “Fantastic Four”, with independent trackers on Tuesday, projecting $ 110 million. But it was before the critics came in with reviews that, like “Thunderbolts*”, were not effusion but leaned positive. “First Steps” has 87% Rotten tomatoes score With special praise given to the film’s colorful, retro-futuristic production design.
Exhibitors tell Thewrap that “Fantastic Four” detention has been dramatically since Monday, and that they expect the film to not only strike forecasts, but can meet or exceed the $ 125 million opening weekend in Warner Bros./DC Studios “Superman” earlier this month. If it does, it will be the third highest opening of the year behind only “a Minecraft movie” ($ 162.7 million) and “Lilo & Stitch” ($ 146 million).
Although the more enthusiastic predictions are not fulfilled, “Fantastic Four” will blow past $ 74.3 million opening of “Thunderbolts*” and $ 88 million start by “Captain America: Brave New World.” The film’s lively aesthetics and its casting of the popular Pedro Pascal that Mister Fantastic has played big factors in it.
But the biggest difference between “Fantastic Four” and its last two predecessors is that it is a home-free Marvel movie. That is, it is not connected to previous MCU titles, but no major characters or plot wires that were previously introduced as in “Thunderbolts*”, which has an ensemble role of characters from Disney+ Show as “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and movies like “Black Widow.”
This is of design. At a press conference with a trade reporter last week, Marvel Studio’s President Kevin Feige said that he and his team made the decision early to introduce Fantastic Four into an alternative universe from what Marvel Cinematic Universe is set.
“We didn’t want the problem that people had with” eternal “where they asked,” where were these guys before? Why didn’t they Help fighting Thanos? “He said.
Feige also talked about Marvel’s latest plans to scale back his production after the Blitz of Streaming series released on Disney+and noted that they had released too much for everyone except the most hardcore of fans to keep up with.
“It’s the enlargement I think led people to say,“ Do I have to see all this? It used to be fun, but do I have to know everything to get this? “, He said.” I think “The Marvels” was hit hardest, where people were like, “I recognize (Captain Marvel) from a billion dollar movie, but who are the other two? I think they were in any TV show?”
When “Fantastic Four” enters theaters, “Superman” continues to stay extremely well in the United States and crosses $ 250 million on Tuesday. Together with its strong role and optimistic tone, a large part of the film’s mouth-to-mouth has been its standalone nature, with an opening layer to get film guests up to speed on the history of the superheroes in the new DC Cinematic Universe and Superman’s place in it before they release them right in the action.
Since Fan Goodwill and Box Office Grosses for Marvel began to crawl in 2023 with “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”, the studio has still found some hitches. But these hits have been “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”, which was focused on being a trilogifinal rather than setting up future plot threads, and “Deadpool & Wolverine”, an R-class film celebrating IP Marvel Studios from Disney’s acquisition of the 1900s Fox.
Conversely, films such as “Thunderbolts*” and “The Marvels”, which involved the extended MCU mytos on Disney+, have either underperformed or directly flopped. It is a problem that Marvel is facing when it builds up to next year’s “Avengers: Doomsday” without the years value of hype and story that led to the combined $ 4.85 billion global gross by “Infinity War” and “EndGame” 2018 and 2019.
But apart from a Mittkredits sequence, “Fantastic Four” does not put direct focus on what will come, even though fans know that its heroes will fight against Doctor Doom when Christmas is rolling around Christmas. It only focuses on being a fun summer blockbuster that is accessible to everyone.
With films like the child-friendly “Bade Guys 2” and the horrible horror movie “Weapons” on the slate in the future, there will be no four quadrant competition apart from “Superman.” So “Fantastic Four” will not have anything that prevents it from trying to get past movie guests to give Marvel another chance on their own merits.