Mister Fantastic and his family have cleared the launch pad in high style.
Director Matt Shakman‘s Fantastic Four: First Steps topped Friday’s box office chart in North America with a huge $57 million, putting it on course for a franchise-best debut in the $120 million to $125 million range in a seminal win for Kevin Feige‘s Marvel Studios. And it’s already crossed the $100 million mark globally after earning $49.2 million in its first few days overseas.
The acclaimed superhero pic boasts the second-biggest opening day of the year to date domestically behind A Minecraft Movie ($57.1 million). That included $24.4 million in Thursday previews, which was the best preview gross of the year to date after supplanting DC’s Superman ($22.5 million), and the biggest preview number for any movie since fellow Marvel title Deadpool & Wolverine a year ago ($38.5 million).
The early performance of First Steps, which earned an A- CinemaScore from audiences, is more than welcome news for the Disney-owned Marvel, where Feige and his team are looking for redemption after a rough few years (Deadpool & Wolverine being the exception). If projections hold — and again, besides Deadpool 3 — the Fantastic Four reboot will mark the best domestic opening for Kevin Feige’s superhero studio since 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. And so far, the pic is pacing slightly head of Superman.
Also on Friday, Disney became the first Hollywood studio to cross $3 billion in global ticket sales. And Marvel boasts three of the five top preview grosses of the year, even if the other two — Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* earned around less than half what First Steps did
Superman debuted to a successful $125 million domestically two weeks ago and $95 million overseas, where it came in slightly behind expectations due to the pro-American themes long tied to the comic-book character. Fantastic Four should have an upper hand over Superman overseas internationally, considering that the previous films in the franchise made by 20th Century Fox did more of their business offshore.
The New York City-set First Steps, which is earning raves for its early 1960s retro-style, stars Pedro Pascal as scientific genius Reed Richards, who leads a space expedition with his wife, Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby); her brother, Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn); and piloted by their good friend Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). When their rocket ship encounters a cosmic storm, it alters their DNA, returning them to Earth with superpowers.
The new film picks up after the four have returned and have become become worldwide heroes. But there is no time to rest on their laurels. They must return to space when Earth is visited by the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), who warns that the planet is about to be destroyed by a cosmic entity named Galactus.
In terms of the box office, the hope is that Fantastic Four will play to both families and fanboys/fangirls alike, which should help combat lingering superhero fatigue at the box office. “The eponymous quartet may have superpowers, but they are also a family, struggling like most of us to handle the most daunting responsibilities life throws our way,” writes David Rooney in his THR reivew.
Elsewhere, Superman is holding in nicely even as it loses Imax screens to Fantastic Four. The DC and Warner Bros. pic should finish its third weekend with nearly $300 million in domestic ticket sales, a milestone Universal and Amblin’s Jurassic World: Rebirth is achieving this weekend.
More to come.
July 26, 7:25: Updated with revised estimates.
This story was originally published July 25 at 8:08 a.m.