We get new insights into the Thunderbolts box office where it’s said to have fallen off a cliff and that the flick won’t even make $400 million worldwide. It’s another disaster for Kevin Feige in a long line of disasters released post-Endgame.
Captain America: Brave New World just failed, which was preceded by the big failure of The Marvels. Let’s also add that Feige and Marvel expected big things from Quantumania, but that too was such a massive bust that it led to the complete overhaul of the MCU.
Up next is The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and so far, it’s not looking good. Fans don’t seem as excited and are lumping it in with the aforementioned failures. Is that why Feige pushed back Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars so far away from FF? To add to things is all the drama surrounding Pedro Pascal. His questionable actions online and political views could send The Fantastic Four: First Steps to its doom.
The Fantastic Four toys pic.twitter.com/ArsJj7hiGn
— Cosmic Book News (@cosmicbooknews) May 24, 2025
What is said about the Thunderbolts box office?
Needed help internationally
You’ll note in my recent box office reports, I’ve been more optimistic about the Thunderbolts box office because it’s been performing a lot better than Captain America: Brave New World.
Thunderbolts has actually been performing around 50% better in the dailies than Cap 4. However, I also said it would need help from the international box office. Well, it turns out, the foreign fans have voted with their dollars and just aren’t interested in the so-called New Avengers.
Foreign box office terminated
We get insights about the foreign box office via Luiz Fernando, who does a good job of regularly reporting and giving box office updates on X.
Luiz offers the Thunderbolts‘ international box office has been “terminated” by all the recent competition, which includes the likes of Lilo & Stitch, Mission Impossible, and even Final Destination: Bloodlines. We can also add in Sinners.
Luiz says Thunderbolts is performing about 40% less internationally than Cap 4 in its fourth weekend overseas.
The X user adds due to such a low foreign box office that Thunderbolts “won’t reach $400M any longer” and the “New Avengers is now eying a $380M-$390M global run.”
Cap 4 finished with $214.6M internationally, while Thunderbolts is presently at $181.7M.
#Thunderbolts* crosses the 350M mark at Global #BoxOffice, but has legs terminated by competition and won’t reach 400M any longer, after grossing just 5.6M on 4th weekend overseas (vs #CaptainAmerica4’s 9.2M), harsh -64.3% drop!#TheNewAvengers hits a 181.7M intl. cume over 53… pic.twitter.com/dipeEp5IRA
— Luiz Fernando (@Luiz_Fernando_J) May 25, 2025
Won’t hit break-even number
The budget is said to be around $180M, plus marketing. The break-even number reported has been said to be $450 million. So if Thunderbolts finishes around $390M, that’s at least a $60M loss for Disney.
I actually believe the break-even number is a higher number, so if that’s the case, the rebranded failure of New Avengers is an even larger loss for Disney, which recently confirmed in an investor report that Captain America: Brave New World is a failure at a $415.1M worldwide gross.
Doomsday for Thunderbolts
Since Thunderbolts has been performing better on the dailies than Cap 4, my most recent estimate was that Thunderbolts could finish at best around $430M worldwide, and would need a miracle to hit that $450M break-even number (in weekend four domestically, Tbolts comes in at $9.164M, while Cap 4 came in at $8.3M).
I said it would need help internationally to hit that $430M and keep outpacing Cap 4 to the tune of 50%+ as it has been. But if Luiz’s estimates are right, it’s also doomsday for Thunderbolts.
Worth noting is that if Thunderbolts did manage to hit $430M, it’s still a bust.
Will Feige and Marvel ever learn?
The movie isn’t terrible by any means, but it also could have been a lot better. More from The Sentry and Winter Soldier would have gone a long way. Also, making the whole movie about Florence Pugh and Yelena was another mistake. Didn’t they learn their lesson from the big failure of The Marvels and the M She U busts on Disney+?
Most recent box office numbers can be found below.
Thunderbolts box office as of Monday:
- Domestic (48.9%): $173,807,728
- International (51.1%): $181,700,000
- Worldwide: $355,507,728
Weekend:
- May 2-4: $74,300,608
- May 9-11: $32,390,811 -56.4%
- May 16 -18: $16,646,774 -48.6%
- May 23-25: $9,164,000 -45%
Daily:
- May 2 Friday (includes Thursday previews): $31,813,091
- May 3 Saturday: $24,683,098
- May 4 Sunday: $17,804,419
- May 5 Monday: $5,008,275
- May 6 Tuesday: $7,463,926
- May 7 Wednesday: $4,318,188
- May 8 Thursday: $4,263,198
- May 9 Friday: $9,085,515
- May 10 Saturday: $13,509,770
- May 11 Sunday: $9,795,526
- May 12 Monday: $2,653,124
- May 13 Tuesday: $4,000,911
- May 14 Wednesday: $2,413,438
- May 15 Thursday: $2,079,164
- May 16 Friday: $4,275,000
- May 17 Saturday: $7,300,000
- May 18 Sunday: $4,961,000
- May 19 Monday: $1,884,215
- May 20 Tuesday: $2,104,508
- May 21 Wednesday: $1,463,882
- May 22 Thursday: $1,216,706
- May 23 Friday: $2,400,000
- May 24 Saturday: $3,400,000
- May 25 Sunday: $3,364,000
- May 26: Monday: $2,436,000 ($173,807,728)
