"Ant-Man" Opens Slightly Below Projections, Still Hits No. 1

[CBR News]

Though "Ant-Man" didn't hit the heights of recent Marvel Studios releases, it outperformed "Minions" to open at No. 1 for the weekend.


Full article here.

[Xalfrea]

It was still number 1, so at least that's something.

Please oh please oh please don't let this be another reason for people to go fearmongering and say that low numbers means that Marvel is doomed.

[RobinFan4880]

This movie was amazing. It will have great word of mouth.

The reason Ant Man didn't do amazing at the box office was due to two issues, 1) lack of name recognition and b) stiff competition with Minions.

If Guardians of the Galaxy had to contend with Minions, it too would have underperformed.

The Despicable Me franchise is a powerhouse, no doubt about it.

Even if Minions only drew a tenth of Ant Man's potential audience away (and I am willing to bet it was much larger than that), Ant Man would have earned 5 million more, easily putting it in the safe zone (63 million).

[Username taken]

$58M for Ant-man is actually pretty good considering the level of the character.

Ant-man isn't on the level of Marvel's previous solo movie efforts.

Luckily the movie only cost $130M so it'll probably gross back its budget.

[RobinFan4880]

Ant-man isn't on the level of Marvel's previous solo movie efforts.

Ant Man was probably the second best solo film in the MCU, after Winter Soldier (IMO).

[kingaliencracker]

We should be at least somewhat honest here...

Yes, Ant-Man isn't one of Marvel's larger properties. But neither was Guardians of the Galaxy. Yet that managed to do tremendous box office with a cast that had less notoriety at the time than Ant-Man.

Given this, as well as Avengers: Age of Ultron's less-than-world-breaking box office, I think there should be some minor concern that the market is being saturated with super hero films and audiences are getting burned out.

[MarvelMaster616]

It's still number one and it's still going to turn a profit. So I don't think this is too big a deal. Ant Man isn't on the same level as Iron Man, Captain America, or even Hulk. I don't think anyone expected it to be on that level. I know people will bring up Guardians of the Galaxy, but that's the exception, not the norm. The scope and scale of that movie was very different compared to Ant Man. And I think for the most part, Ant Man did what it needed to do to play its part in the MCU. Now, I think all the effort is going to be on Civil War and making sure that this movie can stand in a year where it'll have Justice League and X-men: Apocalypse as competition. Either way, 2016 looks like it's going to be a very hectic year for comics.

[baronvonblackheart]

These movies still make an absurd profit. Remember, this is only the domestic box office we're talking about. International is huge.

It's a fantastic movie, and will only get stronger with the buzz, not to mention repeat viewings (I've been twice already, and will go again)

[PretenderNX01]

I felt GotG got a lot more promotion. I mean yeah I saw Michael and Paul out giving interviews but GotG's trailer and that song were inescapable (and now Chris Pratt is in everything).

On the upside, I expect a Captain Marvel or Black Panther movie to be able to at least equal this. Heck, I think Widow could as well if they made one

Ooga chaka ooga chaka

[simbob4000]

It was still number 1, so at least that's something.

Please oh please oh please don't let this be another reason for people to go fearmongering and say that low numbers means that Marvel is doomed.

What are you talking about?

[BertoFlyingFox]

I just had the smallest gripe with Evangeline Lilly's acting but otherwise a great popcorn flick. Loved how they handled the micro-filming, the ants were used in a smart way and the fight scenes were A-mazing.

[kumagawa]

Next year will be interesting with 7 super hero films over 6 months.

[AntoninoC]

We should be at least somewhat honest here...

Yes, Ant-Man isn't one of Marvel's larger properties. But neither was Guardians of the Galaxy. Yet that managed to do tremendous box office with a cast that had less notoriety at the time than Ant-Man.

Given this, as well as Avengers: Age of Ultron's less-than-world-breaking box office, I think there should be some minor concern that the market is being saturated with super hero films and audiences are getting burned out.

Avengers Age of Ultron is the 6th highest grossing film of all time with just under $1.4 billion world-wide. I don't think you can point to that say "look, Marvel/superhero films aren't doing well any more."

[Thennary Nak]

I felt GotG got a lot more promotion. I mean yeah I saw Michael and Paul out giving interviews but GotG's trailer and that song were inescapable (and now Chris Pratt is in everything).

On the upside, I expect a Captain Marvel or Black Panther movie to be able to at least equal this. Heck, I think Widow could as well if they made one

Ooga chaka ooga chaka

Marketing definitely played a part as Ant-Man really did not start until Age of Ultron was out and even then it was mostly eclipsed by that film. They really should have put a trailer for Ant-Man at the end of AoU to help get the word out about if it was not going to have a post credit scene.

That said I do hope Ant-Man does benefit from good buzz. It is a fun film that does not try to be anything more than it is and is better for it. I'm definitely going to go see it again in theaters, and will probably see about dragging people with me.

[David Walton]

I'm really hoping Ant-Man builds up an audience through word-of-mouth, because it was my favorite Marvel Studios film.