“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” was greeted with a hero’s welcome at the box office as Marvel’s newest superhero adventure touched down with $100 million overseas and $218 million globally.
Those ticket sales are ever-so-slightly above the international launch of “Superman,” which collected $95 million while debuting in 78 markets earlier in July. However, “Superman” (just barely) enjoyed a larger global debut with $220 million. “The Fantastic Four” landed in 52 markets with Mexico ($12 million), the United Kingdom ($10.8 million), France ($5.7 million) and Brazil ($5.1 million) standing as the top-earning territories. “First Steps” misfired in China with $4.5 million, which isn’t a surprise because the country has been hostile to most superhero movies in recent years. But even “Superman,” who is more recognizable but ultra-patriotic, managed to collect $6.6 million in its debut in China.
Directed by Matt Shakman, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” follows the superhero quartet of Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) as they protect their world from a planet-devouring cosmic being. Strong reviews and positive word-of-mouth should benefit the film in the coming weeks at the box office. This initial reception is encouraging for Disney and Marvel, which long stood as Hollywood’s most reliable hit maker but has recently struggled with commercial consistency. Though last year’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” was a massive, billion-dollar hit, the studio’s two prior movies this year, February’s “Captain America: Brave New World” and May’s “Thunderbolts,” both ended up losing money against their $180 million budgets.
Three other big-budget movies crossed notable box office milestones, with “Superman” and “F1” clearing $500 million and “Jurassic World Rebirth” surpassing $700 million worldwide over the weekend.
“Superman,” which arrived two weekends prior to “The Fantastic Four,” added $19.8 million from 78 territories for a painful 57% decline. The Warner Bros. and DC Studios adaptation has underperformed at the international box office with $213 million to date. (Most all-audience tentpoles tend to earn around 60% of ticket sales at the international box office, with the remaining percentage from domestic markets.) With a heavier lift from North American audiences, the Man of Steel adventure has powered to $502 million globally after three weekends of release.
Although Universal’s “Jurassic World Rebirth” and Apple’s “F1” have been playing on the big screen for a longer period of time, those tentpoles flew slightly higher than “Superman” at the international box office on weekend charts. That’s because, unlike “Superman,” the latest “Jurassic” and “F1” didn’t have the same direct competition among comic book buffs.
“Jurassic World Rebirth” collected $23.5 million from 82 territories in its fourth weekend of release, boosting its international tally to $416 million. The dinosaur adventure is one of three Hollywood releases this year to clear the $700 million mark with ticket sales at $718 million so far. That’s a huge tally, but the newly revived property (this time around with Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali) faces a high metric of success because the three films in the prior sequel trilogy, led by Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, each grossed $1 billion globally.
Meanwhile, “F1” continues to stay strong with $20 million from 78 markets in its fifth lap around the track. Brad Pitt’s racing drama, which cost $250 million to produce, has earned an impressive $344 million internationally and $509 million worldwide to date.