{"id":48433,"date":"2025-07-30T21:05:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T21:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/48433\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T21:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T21:05:07","slug":"marvel-looks-to-avengers-x-men-and-black-panther-3-for-future-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/48433\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Looks to Avengers, X-Men and Black Panther 3 for Future Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tCould have been worse. Could have been better. That\u2019s the collective takeaway on Marvel Studios<\/a>\u2019 \u201cThe Fantastic Four: First Steps<\/a>,\u201d which pulled in $218 million globally<\/a> following its July 25 bow.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut as with \u201cSuperman<\/a>\u201d two weeks prior, the superhero movie\u2019s overseas haul \u2014 $100 million, including an anemic $4.5 million from China \u2014 offers a stark reminder of how much things have changed since pre-COVID days and where the tripwires lie for the Disney-owned studio, which has ambitious plans for two \u201cAvengers\u201d movies in 2026 and 2027, respectively, followed by an \u201cX-Men\u201d reboot further out on the horizon. By contrast, \u201cAvengers: Endgame\u201d nabbed $614 million from the Middle Kingdom alone in 2019.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s a reset of what a hit is, and I don\u2019t see them consistently hitting $1 billion as before \u2014 without China, with Disney+ exposure, post-COVID, without megastars,\u201d says one top agent who represents several clients in the Marvel universe. \u201cChina used Marvel, Disney and the U.S. film industry to seed their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdds one insider of the lost China windfall: \u201cWe are never going to have those days again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat reality has changed the calculus at Marvel<\/a>, led by Kevin Feige<\/a>, when it comes to making a movie like \u201cX-Men.\u201d \u201cThunderbolts\u201d helmer Jake Schreier is set to direct the tentpole, with the studio fine-tuning Michael Lesslie\u2019s script.<\/p>\n

\n\tCasting will begin soon, and the field is wide open. But Marvel has indicated to reps that it is looking for younger talent, rather than A-listers, to \u201ckeep the cost down,\u201d says another agent. (Feige also indicated he is looking to focus on the next-gen aspects of \u201cX-Men\u201d<\/a> during a recent conversation with press.) Marvel is holding July 23, 2027, on the release calendar for an unnamed film, but sources say it won\u2019t be filled by \u201cX-Men.\u201d Marvel declined comment for this story.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Matt Shakman<\/a>\u2019s \u201cFantastic Four\u201d features a bona fide TV star in Pedro Pascal<\/a>, who has made his mark on the small screen in everything from \u201cThe Mandalorian<\/a>\u201d to \u201cThe Last of Us<\/a>,\u201d he hasn\u2019t yet scaled the same big-screen heights as the \u201cEndgame\u201d ensemble. And that helped keep the \u201cFantastic Four\u201d budget manageable. Disney hasn\u2019t given a precise figure on the film\u2019s budget, only pegging it at somewhere north of $200 million.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAvengers: Doomsday\u201d will feature at least one mega-payday in Robert Downey Jr.<\/a>, who is returning to the Marvel fold as villain Doctor Doom. Sources say Downey Jr. has earned between $500 million and $600 million over the course of seven Marvel movies and three cameos and won\u2019t be working at a discount on \u201cDoomsday\u201d; neither will Chris Hemsworth<\/a>, who\u2019s returning as Thor. As for who will be the star of the film, sources say Pascal is not the centerpiece, but does have an integral role. Regardless, the tentpole is on schedule to open Dec. 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tWall Street is keeping close tabs on Marvel as elements of its expanded portfolio fall into place, including the integration of 20th Century Fox assets like \u201cFantastic Four,\u201d \u201cX-Men\u201d and last year\u2019s runaway hit \u201cDeadpool & Wolverine,\u201d which earned $1.34 billion worldwide.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMarvel is a critical piece to Disney\u2019s overall premium IP. And the stronger Marvel is, the better it is for the overall company,\u201d says Wall Street analyst Robert Fishman at MoffettNathanson.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe recent studio momentum has allowed Disney to help drive subscriber growth at Disney+ and see the overall Disney flywheel start to accelerate again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere won\u2019t be much to analyze for the next year. The next Marvel movie to hit theaters is \u201cSpider-Man: Brand New Day\u201d on July 31, followed by \u201cDoomsday\u201d in December and \u201cAvengers: Secret Wars\u201d in December 2027. Amid an industrywide pullback on superheroes, the Marvel brain trust is feeling no sense of urgency on the long-gestating \u201cBlade\u201d reboot or even a new \u201cDeadpool\u201d outing, sources say. However, ideas are percolating on a Ryan Coogler<\/a>-helmed \u201cBlack Panther 3,\u201d creating excitement internally.<\/p>\n

\n\tUltimately, Marvel is thrilled that it has brought \u201cFantastic Four\u201d \u2014 a tricky property that proved vexing in the past \u2014 back from the grave: Fans have embraced the effort, giving the film an A- CinemaScore. The two previous incarnations found a tepid response from audiences, with diminishing returns. Tim Story\u2019s 2005 version earned $334 million, while the drama-plagued 2015 version took home $168 million amid a public bashing from director Josh Trank<\/a>, who complained of studio interference from Fox. (Actor Toby Kebbell corroborated Trank\u2019s version of events.) This time around, the only minor blip came via a behind-the-scenes battle over screenwriting credits, with the WGA stepping in to make a determination. The union awarded final screenwriting credit to Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, Ian Springer and Kat Wood.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor superhero watchers, good is the new great, as the genre finds its footing after a cold streak that included recent Marvel misfires \u2014 \u201cThunderbolts\u201d and \u201cThe Marvels\u201d \u2014 as well as a batch of duds from DC that predated the James Gunn-Peter Safran regime.<\/p>\n

\n\tSays analyst Shawn Robbins of Box Office Theory: \u201cI think as an industry we\u2019ve become very obsessed with opening-weekend results, in particular with both [\u2018Superman\u2019 and \u2018Fantastic Four\u2019]. Because word of mouth is so strong for both, I think the story is not fully obvious yet. Yes, \u2018Fantastic Four\u2019 is good enough in terms of it exceeded what Disney expected. So that\u2019s a positive. And it\u2019s tough to compare it to any other Marvel films because we simply live in a different time now for the superhero releases.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Could have been worse. Could have been better. That\u2019s the collective takeaway on Marvel Studios\u2019 \u201cThe Fantastic Four:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,15078,5432,4861],"class_list":["post-48433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-marvel-studios","tag-pedro-pascal","tag-the-fantastic-four-first-steps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}