The Box Office

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Avatar now has officially passed Titanic for number 3 world wide. Went back and forth with it a bit, but now it's pretty clear that Avatar (with 10 million more currently) will keep the third place spot as the Titanic rerelease ends and Avatar keeps it's run going a bit. Insane.

[Maestro 216]

I know its always the same people. The did it with Doctor Strange 2 as well. Which literally blew the first movies box off out of the water. I laugh at the constant moving of goalpost regarding the MCU being in decline. There is absolutely no evidence of that what so ever, but its repeated so often even logically people are thinking hmmm MCU is in decline.

Decline of quality is debatable...

[mace11]

I know its always the same people. The did it with Doctor Strange 2 as well. Which literally blew the first movies box off out of the water. I laugh at the constant moving of goalpost regarding the MCU being in decline. There is absolutely no evidence of that what so ever, but its repeated so often even logically people are thinking hmmm MCU is in decline.

Here is some box office talk and more goal post moving etc..
Quantumania Opening Weekend Box Office, The Last of Us Nielsen Ratings aka Viewership

[mace11]

I even saw on youtube a clickbait video title called make marvel male again.

[Aahz]

I know its always the same people. The did it with Doctor Strange 2 as well. Which literally blew the first movies box off out of the water. I laugh at the constant moving of goalpost regarding the MCU being in decline. There is absolutely no evidence of that what so ever, but its repeated so often even logically people are thinking hmmm MCU is in decline.

With Ant-Man It really depends to what you compare it.

For an Ant-Man movie the opening was very good, for a movie that is suppose to start the next phase of the MCU and introduce the next big bad, it seems a bit weak.

EDIT: On the other hand the Box office now seems to be more front loaded than before the pandemic.

[The True Detective]

Ant-man 3 opens 29 million dollars more than Ant-man 2. Yes that marvel fatigue really setting in. 225 million worldwide.

Multiverse of Madness had BvS level legs, Love & Thunder had bad legs and Quantamania had a B Cinemascore the worst ever for an MCU movie and worse than Green Lantern, Justice League and Catwoman and the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score for an MCU movie along with Eternals, it is doing pretty poorly at the international box office. These are all facts. I don't know of it's Marvel fatigue or people not liking the movies themselves but it is what it is. Quantamania is the 1st entry in Phase 5 and introduces the next Thanos level big bad and it won't outgross Ant-Man & the Wasp, that isn't good whatsoever.

[Tofali]

Why is there so much expectation for an Ant-Man & the Wasp movie? I understand entertainment journalism building narratives about "Marvel fatigue" for clicks, the box office in the Ant-Man franchise has never been BIG however for the budget that was spent on Quantumania - I'm sure Marvel Studios is expecting a big return from their gamble.

[80sbaby]

Why is there so much expectation for an Ant-Man & the Wasp movie? I understand entertainment journalism building narratives about "Marvel fatigue" for clicks, the box office in the Ant-Man franchise has never been BIG however for the budget that was spent on Quantumania - I'm sure Marvel Studios is expecting a big return from their gamble.

What was the budget?

[Tofali]

What was the budget?

it's around $200M.

[inisideguy]

Multiverse of Madness had BvS level legs, Love & Thunder had bad legs and Quantamania had a B Cinemascore the worst ever for an MCU movie and worse than Green Lantern, Justice League and Catwoman and the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score for an MCU movie along with Eternals, it is doing pretty poorly at the international box office. These are all facts. I don't know of it's Marvel fatigue or people not liking the movies themselves but it is what it is. Quantamania is the 1st entry in Phase 5 and introduces the next Thanos level big bad and it won't outgross Ant-Man & the Wasp, that isn't good whatsoever.

Super-hero movies are frontloaded especially MCU ones because they have a very loyal set of fans. Ant-man 3 will be around 115 million after today. Ant-man 2 made 216 million its entire run in the states. Its doing very well. Doctor Strange 2 made like 300 million more than doctors strange 1 without even a china release. Thor love and thunder also didn't have China and still beat Thor Ragnarok at the domestic box office. Now your going to bring up foreign box office.

Sigh this is what I mean its always something to try and pick on. These people release 3 or 4 movies a year and every freaking year they are in the top ten in box office. Sometimes topping it. But you always have some people trying to say man look it had a slow weekend overseas. Or it didnt do good in Korea. Or lord knows what.

[80sbaby]

it's around $200M.

Ok well that's not too bad, actually. Ant-Man & Wasp budget seems to be $130-$195 million. If this makes back just $600 million then it's profitable.

[inisideguy]

With Ant-Man It really depends to what you compare it.

For an Ant-Man movie the opening was very good, for a movie that is suppose to start the next phase of the MCU and introduce the next big bad, it seems a bit weak.

EDIT: On the other hand the Box office now seems to be more front loaded than before the pandemic.

Its not weak at all. Its the third biggest box office ever for a presidents day weekend. Only Black Panther and Deadpool did better.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Ant Man 3 (to be short) was a bigger success than the last film. It drew $30+ million more than the last film. Ant Man 2 had a budget of $130-195 million in total. It would do $622+ million worldwide. The budget increased to $225 million. What helped Ant Man 3 is the movie made almost half its production budget back in 1 weekend. And its got 2-3 weeks of small films to compete against (Cocaine Bear , Operation Fortune).

So Ant Man 3 could have at least 2-3 weekends before Shazam 2 arrives to run clear right now. To see how it can do to get its budget earned back. What is helping Ant Man 3 is ...the China market. With Igor back he made sure to get China back and well...that played a major hand in some box office takes not being huge.


Thor : Love and Thunder actually performed $30+ million better domestically and would have likely notched the same box office that Ragnorak did if China was there. See that film didn't get a release in China like the 3rd film did. Which earned $112+ million from the China market. So factor in at least $100 million cut off there....and Love & Thunder performs right around where the 3rd film did.

Speaking of China...the last Ant Man film did $121+ million in that market. So its clear Marvel is hoping for that same performance again there. The last Ant Man did $622+ million worldwide. Already in its 1st week , Ant Man 3 is at $400+ million. No idea how well it will do.

But the end result is ...Disney was wise to get that market back.

[useridgoeshere]

With Ant-Man It really depends to what you compare it.

For an Ant-Man movie the opening was very good, for a movie that is suppose to start the next phase of the MCU and introduce the next big bad, it seems a bit weak.

Characters have always mattered to box office. There's never been a standard "MCU" box office number. Thor's box office is different than Iron Man's, which is different than Ant-Man's. Involving other characters can help, like MOM, but the lead character still matters. Civil War has all the Avengers in it, but branded as "Captain America", it grossed less than any actual Avengers movie.

You can argue they shouldn't have launched Kang through the "Loki" D+ series and an "Ant-Man and the Wasp" movie (especially one that featured no high-profile cameos in the ads), but the only fair BO comparison for people without an agenda is character to character, AM vs. AM&tW vs. AM&tW. In Phase 4/5 so far, it's been a lot of new characters, but the sequels - Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Thor - have done well compared to their predecessors. BPWF is the only one that significantly underperformed the previous installment and quality-wise, it had the second best reviews (critics & audience) behind NWH. It just wasn't able to become the cultural phenom of the first in the US.

[inisideguy]

Characters have always mattered to box office. There's never been a standard "MCU" box office number. Thor's box office is different than Iron Man's, which is different than Ant-Man's. Involving other characters can help, like MOM, but the lead character still matters. Civil War has all the Avengers in it, but branded as "Captain America", it grossed less than any actual Avengers movie.

You can argue they shouldn't have launched Kang through the "Loki" D+ series and an "Ant-Man and the Wasp" movie (especially one that featured no high-profile cameos in the ads), but the only fair BO comparison for people without an agenda is character to character, AM vs. AM&tW vs. AM&tW. In Phase 4/5 so far, it's been a lot of new characters, but the sequels - Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Thor - have done well compared to their predecessors. BPWF is the only one that significantly underperformed the previous installment and quality-wise, it had the second best reviews (critics & audience) behind NWH. It just wasn't able to become the cultural phenom of the first in the US.

Exactly right. What people try and do and they did it after NWH is compare marvel movies to other marvel movies directly. Spider-man no way home which A is a spider-man movie and B had all the Spider-men back after 20 years is not something that should be compared to Doctor strange 2. All you can do is compare it to Doctor Strange 1. The fact that every marvel movie sequel at least in the states except Avengers age of Ultron Iron Man 2 and Black Panther 2 has done better than its predecessor is freaking incredible.