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. This painful a fall is surprising because “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” 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, 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).
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.
“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.”
At No. 3, Paramount’s slapstick comedy “The Naked Gun” debuted to $17 million from 3,344 theaters, squarely in line with projections. It’s a promising start given the dearth of theatrical comedies. Critics and moviegoers dug the film, 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 Naked Gun” 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. Akiva Schaffer of the Lonely Island fame directed the film, which carries a $42 million price tag.
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 frightningly 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 couple’s 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.
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.
More to come…