Weekend Box Office: Fantastic Four has a huge fall in week 2; does the Marvel Slump continue?
While last week’s box office numbers suggested Marvel’s slump might finally be over, Fantastic Four: First Steps has collapsed in its second weekend. According to Comscore, the film brought in $40 million—a steep 66% drop. We had predicted a decline in the 55% range, but it looks like while Marvel diehards are still showing up, the general public just isn’t as engaged anymore.
The silver lining for Marvel? Fantastic Four is still their biggest movie of the year. It’s already outgrossed Thunderboltsand is just a million or so shy of passing Captain America: Brave New World. But it’s unlikely to crack $500 million worldwide, meaning it’ll probably be yet another Marvel release that loses money. And that’s a problem, because Avengers: Doomsday is built around the casts of Brave New World, Thunderbolts, and Fantastic Four—and audiences seem to have rejected all of them. Will Doomsday still be the massive hit Marvel is banking on? Time will tell.
Elsewhere, The Bad Guys 2 matched the opening of its predecessor with $22.2 million—a solid result in a summer where family films have struggled. The Naked Gun pulled in $17 million, one of the strongest comedy debuts since the pandemic. With a solid A– CinemaScore, it could have legs (and it’s really worth seeing in a theater). Meanwhile, James Gunn’s Superman has now crossed $316 million domestically—well ahead of recent Marvel offerings—though its soft overseas performance has slightly dampened the celebration. Oddly enough, Jurassic World: Rebirth, which many wrote off early, has had the best legs of the summer. It brought in another $8.7 million this weekend, pushing it past $317 million.
NEON’s Together had a decent start—not quite the crossover success of Longlegs or The Monkey, but still respectable. It opened to $6.8 million, with early screenings bringing its total to $10.5 million. NEON may have officially overtaken A24 as the reigning champ of indie horror. WB/Apple’s F1 grossed $4.1 million, bringing its total to $173 million. It reclaims IMAX screens next week in what’s clearly a final push toward the $200 million domestic mark.
As for franchise reboots, two of them landed with a thud. I Know What You Did Last Summer—easily my pick for the worst movie of the year—earned $2.65 million, bringing its total to $29.5 million. Smurfs did even worse. While Last Summer was at least cheap (and looked it), Smurfs took in just $1.7 million for a $28.5 million domestic haul. Surprisingly, it’s done well overseas, more than doubling its domestic gross. Who knew?
Finally, a reboot that actually worked: How to Train Your Dragon brought in $1.35 million this weekend, pushing its total to $260 million and making it the top-grossing film in the franchise.
Next weekend brings Freakier Friday and Weapons. Will either break out before we hit the dog days of summer? Let us know in the comments!
The post Weekend Box Office: Fantastic Four has a huge fall in week 2; does the Marvel Slump continue? appeared first on JoBlo.