Weekend Box Office: FANTASTIC FOUR Clobbers its Way to the Top with $118M Domestic Debut

Key Takeaways

Total 3-Day Weekend Gross:
$184,851,674 | +28.5% Last Week / -35.2% Weekend 30, 2024

Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps opened strong with an estimated $118M, in line with previous well-received MCU movies like Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok. There was a stronger decline from the combined Friday to Saturday (-42%) than either Superman (-33%) or Thunderbolts* (-22%), which means we will be watching Frame 2 closely. Although this new Marvel movie greatly boosted the box office from last week, it was a big year-over-year decline from this frame in 2024 when the R-rated Deadpool & Wolverine had a huge $211.4M debut from the studio. That feels natural since that Ryan Reynolds/Hugh Jackman movie was combining two very strong IPs with lots of previous success behind them, as opposed to FF which has had a spotty history.

Top Title: The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Disney) | $118M / 4,125 Screens / $28,606 PSA | Week 1

Top Opener: The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Disney) | $118M / 4,125 Screens / $28,606 PSA | Week 1

Best PSA: The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Disney) | $118M / 4,125 Screens / $28,606 PSA | Week 1

Highlights From the Weekend

1. The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Disney/Marvel Studios | NEW
$118M 3-Day Domestic Opening Weekend | $218M Global Total

Marvel Studios broke the Fantastic Four curse this weekend by finally—after three decades of trying- delivering a simultaneous critical, audience, and box office hit for their First Family with The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The 37th MCU movie took in an estimated $118M on 4,125 screens for a $28,606 Per Screen Average. That number is almost exactly what Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 opened with two years ago ($118.4M) and also close to 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming ($117M), another critical/audience fav coming after several previous non-MCU versions. It’s nowhere near the top for a studio that has had six $200M+ openers (including last summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine), but that number is well above any prior FF movie’s debut.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) – $118M opening

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) – $58M opening/$131.9M total

Fantastic Four (2005) – $56M opening/$154.69M total

Fantastic Four (2015) – $25.68M opening/$56.1M total

Here’s how the 3-Day looked, including a very front-loaded $24.4M Thursday previews gross that led to a -42% decline on Saturday…

Friday – $57M

Saturday – $33.2M

Sunday – $27.8M

This first frame fell right in the middle of our prediction panel’s forecast, and is also performing both domestically and globally in the same range as Superman did two weekends ago ($118M vs $125M domestic/$218M vs $217M WW). IMAX took in 13.6% of the domestic gross with $16M on just 418 screens and $26.6M globally. That’s a smaller share compared to Superman, which debuted with $19.1M domestic and $30.4M on IMAX with the same number of screens. Premium formats drove 46% of the total box office…

2D – 87%

Traditional 2D – 54%

PLF 2D – 19%

IMAX 2D – 12%

Motion 2D – 1%

ScreenX – 1%

3D – 13%

Traditional 3D – 7%

PLF 3D – 2%

IMAX 3D – 2%

Motion 3D – 2%

Critically the movie did very well at 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, even compared to Superman‘s 83%. In terms of the MCU that number is tied with Thunderbolts‘ score and #14 overall for the franchise. Even though critical did not move the needle for Thunderbolts this year, these back-to-back scores indicate a broad improvement in quality that could help return confidence to the brand. Audience score was 93% (also better than Superman’s 92%), while CinemaScore was “A-” and PostTrak got a 4.5 out of 5 stars with an 86% total positive. It’s worth noting that the 35-44 bracket gave the movie the biggest kudos at 80%.

Audiences were split heavily male at 68% to 32% female, while the strongest age grouping was 18-34…

Under 12 – 6%

13-17 – 9%

18-24 – 27%

25-34 – 28%

35-44 – 15%

45-54 – 10%

55+ – 6%

Here’s how demographics looked…

Caucasian – 37%

Hispanic – 30%

AA – 18%

Asian – 10%

NatAm/Other – 5%

Internationally Fantastic Four: First Steps opened in all key markets at either #1 or #1 non-local, posting the highest superhero opening of 2025 in Mexico (the top market), UK, France, Italy, Spain, and Latin America. Overall it earned $100M in 52 material territories for a $218M global total.

Other Notable Performances

WB and DC Studios’ Superman dropped another -57% to #2 with $24.9M (a little below our low-end prediction) for a $289.5M domestic total just shy of Man of Steel‘s $291M. Once it passes that 2013 Zack Snyder pic tomorrow it will be in fifth place among modern DCEU movies and #9 for DC Comics films overall. Overseas is evening out a bit more with $19.8M this frame ($213.2M total) for a global total of $502.7M. WB’s racing movie F1 also passed the $500M mark at $509.7M global.

Universal’s Jurassic World Rebirth also crossed some milestones at $301.5M domestic and $718.35M WW. The movie came in third in the weekend derby at $13M, right where we predicted. Still solidly in fourth place globally for the year.

Next Weekend

A different kind of team will swoop in to try and steal The Fantastic Four’s thunder next week as DreamWorks delivers The Bad Guys 2, the sequel to their 2022 animated hit that made nearly $100M domestic and $250M WW. Meanwhile Paramount is giving us their modern day reboot to the spoof franchise The Naked Gun, with Liam Neeson stepping into Leslie Nielsen’s clumsy shoes. Also in limited is Taron Egerton in Lionsgate’s father/daughter crime drama She Rides Shotgun.

Sunday Studio Estimates | Weekend 30 – 2025
Total 3-Day Domestic Gross: $184,851,674 | (-35.2% vs 2024)

Title
Weekend Estimate
% Change
Locations
Location Change
PSA
Domestic Total
Week
Distributor

Fantastic Four: First Steps, The
$118,000,000

4,125

$28,606
118,000,000
1
Disney

Superman
$24,860,000

3,930

$6,326
289,502,000
3
Warner Bros.

Jurassic World Rebirth
$13,000,000

3,550

$3,662
301,516,000
4
Universal

F1 The Movie
$6,200,000

2,615

$2,371
165,552,000
5
Warner Bros.

Smurfs
$5,400,000

3,504

$1,541
22,787,000
2
Paramount

I Know What You Did Last Summer
$5,100,000

3,206

$1,591
23,552,000
2
Sony

How to Train Your Dragon
$2,800,000

2,346

$1,194
257,008,000
7
Universal

Eddington
$1,664,893

2,065

$806
8,104,585
2
A24

Saiyaara
$1,285,193

215

$5,978
3,245,680
2
Yash Raj Films

Oh, Hi!
$1,129,285

866

$1,304
1,129,285
1
Sony Pictures Classics

Home, The
$1,001,930

1,014

$988
1,001,930
1
Roadside Attractions

Elio
$957,000

1,040

$920
71,464,810
6
Disney

N/A

Lilo & Stitch
$917,000

785

$1,168
420,221,074
10
Disney

28 Years Later
$565,000

517

$1,093
70,010,000
6
Sony

Sorry, Baby
$400,567

338

$1,185
1,608,884
5
A24

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
$385,000

303

$1,271
196,671,000
10
Paramount

House on Eden
$310,000

600

$517
310,000
1
IFC Films

Hari Hara Veera Mallu: Part 1 Sword vs Spirit
$256,276

590

$434
1,174,416
1
Prathyangira Cinemas

Thunderbolts*
$155,000

45

$3,444
190,129,592
13
Disney

Materialists
$126,570

132

$959
36,318,732
7
A24

Lychee Road, The / The Litchi Road
$86,686

N/A

86,686
1
CMC Films

M3GAN 2.0
$80,000

147

$544
$24,051,000
5
Universal

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
$61,678

83

$743
$446,045
3
Sony Pictures Classics

Phoenician Scheme, The
$55,000

77

$714
$19,515,000
9
Focus Features

Cloud
$22,900

3

$7,633
$63,178
2
Janus Films

Diciannove
$18,196

3

$6,065
18,196
1
Oscilloscope Pictures

AJ Goes to the Dog Park
$13,500

32

$422
13,500
1
Music Box Films

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