"Ant-Man" Crosses $100 Million In U.S. Box Office, Remains #1 Over "Pixels"

[marvelprince]

Its doing the standard (slightly above average given the property I'd say) attrition for a comic book movie. Obviously MI knocks it out of number one, but as long as it does well internationally like its done domestic the film is in good shape.

[Prof. Warren]

Beating Pixels at the box office isn't much of an achievement. Adam Sandler hasn't had a successful movie in over a decade. I think Ant Man lucked out, being released during this time of the year. It's real test will come later this week when the new Mission Impossible comes out. Unlike Adam Sandler, Tom Cruise has managed to be in successful, critically acclaimed movies over the course of his three decade career. I have a feeling that he'll knock Ant Man out of the top spot. The real test will be how much Ant Man can make in the long run compared to its recent MCU predecessors.

Being released knee-deep in the summer season is hardly a cake walk for any film. Just look at the disappointing performance of Terminator: Genysis and Pixels for evidence of that. Any film coming out in July of any year is going to face stiff competition. So Ant-Man has more than proven its mettle.

Even though its box office haul won't be as huge as most other Marvel movies, the thing is...it's Ant-Man. This is a C-list character at best whose main notoriety in pop culture previous to this movie was being the butt of jokes in a '70s SNL sketch. Add to that the fact that this was the most troubled Marvel production to date with a fan favorite writer/director being booted from the film just prior to the start of production and its against-the-odds success looks even more notable.

[kalorama]

Sheesh, I bet a Black Widow movie could do 100 million in two weeks and have cost less. Just saying

I don't really get where people are getting this idea that a Black Widow movie--at least one that the established Marvel movie audience would want to see--could be made on the cheap. Also, Ant-Man had the lowest reported budget of any Marvel movie so far.

[DebkoX]

PIXELS was sadly doomed to fail, the irony is it could have been huge.

[kalorama]

I saw the trailer for Pixels (having heard nothing about it previously) when I went to see GotG and, for the first few seconds, I thought "this looks like it could be fun." But no sooner did I complete that thought than they showed Sandler's face and I thought "Uh, this is gonna be a disaster."

The problem with Sandler is that he's basically been making the same movie over-and-over for the past 20 years. But the people who liked Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, and the Waterboy when they came out (whoever those people were) have, for the most part, grown up and outgrown. He hasn't.

I actually think that Pixels might have had a decent shot if they'd cast much younger (early 20s, playing teens), quasi-recognizable actors in the leads. By casting the likes of Sandler and Kevin James, they incited apathy from both the adult audience (who've grown tired of Sandler's schtick) and the younger audience (who mostly never cared about it).

[Immortal Weapon]

I think Ant Man lucked out, being released during this time of the year.

Ant-Man was released a week after Minions. Minions is insanely popular among children and families.

[fred]

Ant-Man was released a week after Minions. Minions is insanely popular among children and families.

Truth, my kids chose Antman over Minions, and they LOOOOOVE Dispicable me. They happpily decided to wait and see it on home release...

[RobinFan4880]

Being released knee-deep in the summer season is hardly a cake walk for any film. Just look at the disappointing performance of Terminator: Genysis and Pixels for evidence of that. Any film coming out in July of any year is going to face stiff competition. So Ant-Man has more than proven its mettle.

Even though its box office haul won't be as huge as most other Marvel movies, the thing is...it's Ant-Man. This is a C-list character at best whose main notoriety in pop culture previous to this movie was being the butt of jokes in a '70s SNL sketch. Add to that the fact that this was the most troubled Marvel production to date with a fan favorite writer/director being booted from the film just prior to the start of production and its against-the-odds success looks even more notable.

Right out of the gate, Minions is what really blunted the momentum of Ant-Man. Had Ant-Man come out this weekend, I think it would have done much better its first week (but also much worse its second week due to Mission Impossible).

There was so much going against Ant-Man.

1. Last Minute Director Change
2. Pym is not Ant Man
3. Wasp was "dead"
4. Hope... Who the heck is that?
5. Scott Lang, really?
6. Ant Man...? Seriously? Why can't we get a real heroes' movie?

Of all my friends who enjoy Marvel films, I am the only one who went and saw Ant Man. It is stunning how uninterested they were in the film.

[Tighelander]

There was so much going against Ant-Man.

1. Last Minute Director Change
2. Pym is not Ant Man
3. Wasp was "dead"
4. Hope... Who the heck is that?
5. Scott Lang, really?
6. Ant Man...? Seriously? Why can't we get a real heroes' movie?

I don't think comic book fans affect the success of a movie; the number of fans is too small.

[vaf2675]

What! How on earth did Pixels do so badly in the box office?! That movie was funny as heck!!

Don't get me wrong, Ant-Man was a great movie (way better than I'd thought it would be), but Pixels was almost just as awesome. I geeked out at all the great video game references and it had me and the rest of the audience LOL hard. However I was wondering why there weren't a lot of people there. I mean honestly, even GL did better on it's opening weekend.

Easy answer:

It's an Adam Sandler movie.

[vaf2675]

Glad to hear Ant-Man is doing well, but honestly, I believe that if Marvel had given it a better publicity push, it could have done better numbers. Then again, Minions is taking a huge chunk of box office because of it's franchise fame, so any movie facing off against it would have been faced with a similar situation.

Still, if Ant-Man continues to perform this well, we should definitely get a sequel, and hopefully get to see Scott and Hope fighting side by side.

[Tighelander]

Still, if Ant-Man continues to perform this well, we should definitely get a sequel, and hopefully get to see Scott and Hope fighting side by side.

"Ant-Man will return" That is true, but it might not mean a sequel.

[lancerman]

Being released knee-deep in the summer season is hardly a cake walk for any film. Just look at the disappointing performance of Terminator: Genysis and Pixels for evidence of that. Any film coming out in July of any year is going to face stiff competition. So Ant-Man has more than proven its mettle.

Even though its box office haul won't be as huge as most other Marvel movies, the thing is...it's Ant-Man. This is a C-list character at best whose main notoriety in pop culture previous to this movie was being the butt of jokes in a '70s SNL sketch. Add to that the fact that this was the most troubled Marvel production to date with a fan favorite writer/director being booted from the film just prior to the start of production and its against-the-odds success looks even more notable.

Again it's all situational. The big films this summer ended up being Furious 7 (April 1st release), Avengers (May 1st release), Jurrasic World (June 12 release).

Ant Man was lucky to have the last of those (and the biggest) open over month before it, and other two were pretty much wrapped up with the earliest being two and half months. It was weak July. Pixels didn't fail because of a crowded box office. Ant Man won the box office because it went up against and R rated romcom and a legitimate bomb that's probably going to put Sandler's career on hold for awhile. That's not impressive.

Minions was the biggest straight up competition to Ant Man and that's generally aimed at much younger kids.

And I'm not saying that's a reflection of Ant Man's quality, just that it wasn't a particularly impressive boxoffice.

[Immortal Weapon]

Right out of the gate, Minions is what really blunted the momentum of Ant-Man. Had Ant-Man come out this weekend, I think it would have done much better its first week (but also much worse its second week due to Mission Impossible).

There was so much going against Ant-Man.

1. Last Minute Director Change
2. Pym is not Ant Man
3. Wasp was "dead"
4. Hope... Who the heck is that?
5. Scott Lang, really?
6. Ant Man...? Seriously? Why can't we get a real heroes' movie?

Of all my friends who enjoy Marvel films, I am the only one who went and saw Ant Man. It is stunning how uninterested they were in the film.

Only the first bullet point would have an affect to general audiences that know that it. The rest they wouldn't give a damn about. The regular movie-goer who hasn't heard of Ant-Man before this movie won't give a damn about Pym not being the lead character and Jan being dead.

[Arfguy]

I think we can all agree that Ant-Man is doing better as a superhero movie than the likes of Green Lantern and Watchman. In fact, in a couple of weeks, Ant-Man should pass both of those movies in total domestic box office.

What I find most astonishing is that Ant-Man opened bigger and most likely finish with better domestic numbers than The Wolverine, which a lot of people thought was a good movie. I found it to be boring, but that's just my personal opinion.

While I don't know if Ant-Man will have better overall numbers than the Wolverine, I find it pretty amazing that Ant-Man is considered a lesser property, did not have any cinematic history until now and stars a lead that I do not think nearly as popular as Hugh Jackman.

That's pretty telling of the power of Marvel.

[EDIT - cleaned up the comparison between Jackman and Rudd]