Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps is heading for another rough weekend at the box office, with early numbers pointing to yet another steep decline.
Third Friday Numbers
The third Friday brought in just $4.5 million, another big drop of 61.4% from the previous Friday. That puts the film on track for an estimated $16M-$17M weekend. The drop follows the second weekend plummeting 67.1%.
Update: Estimates are offering only a $15.5M third weekend (another 60% drop), lower than Thunderbolts (along with Cap 4, Disney named Thunderbolts as a big loss in its recent investor report).
It’s now possible Fantastic Four could fall short of Thunderbolts, despite opening much higher at $117.6M compared to Thunderbolts’ $74.3M. Still, it’s doing better than Captain America 4 — though that’s not saying much.
For comparison:
- Thunderbolts pulled $4.26M on its third Friday and ended that weekend at $16.64M.
- Captain America: Brave New World managed $3.55M for Friday and $14.85M for the weekend.
That means Fantastic Four may slightly edge out Thunderbolts , but that depends on how the weekend goes. And again, it’s not saying much if it barely beats Thunderbolts. Scratch that, it actually says a lot.
Still Getting Crushed by Superman
James Gunn’s Superman continues to dominate Marvel, but Gunn’s DCU launchpad also happens to have its own struggles.
Still, Superman‘s third Friday brought in $7.09M, with a third weekend total of $24.85M.
That’s nearly $9 million more than Fantastic Four is expected to earn this weekend.
MCU Downward Trend Continues
With a production budget reportedly north of $200M — and possibly closer to $350M with reshoots from what we have been told — Fantastic Four’s performance remains far from what it needs to break even. The steep week-to-week drops suggest audience interest is fading fast, with no signs of a rebound.
We recently went over what the Thunderbolts bomb means for the next Avengers movies.
Fantastic Four looks to be Feige’s next bomb, but that hasn’t stopped the rumors that a sequel is happening anyway.
Fantastic Four box office grosses as of Friday
- Domestic (56.3%): $219,412,709
- International (43.7%): $170,284,359
- Worldwide: $389,697,068
