Yours indeed isn’t going to sit here and rehash the same dwelling problems the MCU has incurred for the past five years, because it’s an endless discussion about abusing IP/quantity over quality/exploiting nostalgia to skew the numbers/lack of a direction that once propelled this series to infinity and beyond.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps took a mighty 80% crash on Friday, netting $40 million in its second weekend domestically (-66% drop) to bring its domestic cume slightly shy of $200 million. It has passed $368 million worldwide. And yes, there is a cornucopia of MCU features that experienced harsher second-weekend drops in the July season but recovered admirably afterwards. The exceptions are Black Widow and Thor: Love and Thunder, two of the more notoriously mediocre entries that have occurred under the Phase Four/Five banner of the MCU. Again, this third reboot of the Fantastic Four series sold itself as different, abstaining from the past mishandlings/crossovers of the broad MCU landscape, but folks are turning their heads away from it in the same vein as they did with King Arthur or Snow White (or as of recent, another Smurfs movie or another I Know What You Did Last Summer). Folks clamor more for the well-documented heroes like Spider-Man, Batman, and even Superman (more on that in a moment).
Now, the MCU title is almost meaningless, a fogtrotter in Hollywood dancing with “What’s next?” as it desperately searches for a new original concept or a different IP that folks will latch onto, or more nostalgia that folks want to see. The only things sustaining the MCU, outside of the Avengers brand and any assets acquired from Fox, are Black Panther (which will be a tough sell for the third one, minus Chadwick Boseman), Guardians of the Galaxy (which will probably be put on the back burner as its creator James Gunn went to DC), and Spider-Man (only because Sony will work with Disney). Much like the discourse about how Disney sabotaged Star Wars since 2015, the same can be said for Marvel since 2019. And to cap off our discussion, it seems that First Steps might end up earning as many tickets as its 2005 predecessor, which isn’t ideal for spending this much time and this many reboots to deliver something objectively “good.” Money well ****ing spent, I guess.
For all the $71 billion spent to acquire Fox, it seems Disney couldn’t handle itself when Disney+ became a homework session turnoff, coupled with their over-reliance on nostalgic beats to sell Doomsday. Hypocritically, no one seems to listen to the villains who are conjured up under their banner.
The Bad Guys 2 earned $22.2 million debut, mere notes shy of its predecessors’ $24 million launch in the summer of 2022. Now, it may not come close to how its predecessor fared, given the multitude of issues with animated franchises not legging up to their sequels, but Dreamworks has been keeping animation and stories fresh. The Naked Gun opened with $17 million, which is an adequate start for the rebooted episode; call it Liam Neeson nostalgia, as it’s been a few years since he’s run off as the leading man, or a lovely ode to Leslie Nielsen. The worst-case scenario is that it might perform poorly, like The Naked Gun 33 1/3, which earned $51 million domestically from a $13.1 million start.
DC’s Superman has surpassed $316 million domestically in its fourth weekend, earning $13.85 million, and has now exceeded $550 million worldwide. Still on pace to fly past $600 million worldwide and essentially tie with Man of Steel. Jurassic World Rebirth has surpassed $766 million worldwide, maintaining its pace to reach $800 million. F1: The Movie should be past $550 million by Tuesday morning, while How to Train Your Dragon will be the highest-earning of the series in a few days.
NEON’s Together netted $6.8 million, its third-highest weekend performance behind The Monkey and Longlegs. I Know What You Did Last Summer will surpass $30 million domestically by tomorrow, while Smurfs will take a little longer to reach the same milestone.
Next weekend will see the release of Freakier Friday, Weapons, My Mother’s Wedding, and Strange Harvest.
