It’s been a nailbiting weekend for the box office, as many were unsure if Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania may actually manage $100M opening. The B cinemaScore and critical reception made it a make or break situation. Now, for any other ffilm this would be a fantastic opening weekend even with an A score, but Marvel has more weight on its shoulders as one of the biggest franchises and money-makers for Disney. Still, the film surprised and pulled in an additional 33.8M over Saturday after a strong $46M Friday (including Thursday previews) and is set to close the weekend with $104M over three days.
Don’t forget, this is Presidents Day weekend and as such will probably wrap up around $118M. Keep in mind, those numbers can always fluctuate once the weekend wraps up. That would place perfectly in the more positive side of its initial prediction that was between $96M to $131M. So, the film certainly delivered on its box office promise even if the next weekends drop being the true indicator what kind of multiplier we can expect. A more mixed to positive word-of-mouth could still net it a 2.3 multiplier but given the Ant-Man franchise could surprise given how well it worked with children and families. It may have potentially found a niche that could carry the film further.
It should also be noted that the Saturday hold percentage wise is better than Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (-36%), Thor: Love and Thunder (-40%) but not far from Eternals, who also shares the B rating. Deadline believes the draw of Kang the Conqueror may be balancing out any of the critical reception. The film opened 44% higher than Ant-Man and the Wasp and is now the trilogy’s biggest opener. Interestingly enough was playing evenly throughout the entire day. So, this is perhaps a more balanced experience than the other more frontloaded pictures, but only time will tell.
Overall, the film also pulled in a strong $121.3M worldwide and now stands at $238.3M worldwide. The film isn’t breaking any records worldwide and had a smaller opening in China with 19.2M but that market also hasn’t had a Marvel movie in quite some time release at the same as internationally. Deadline has pointed out that science-fiction adventures do have that habit internationally. As of now, the film is now the third highest opener in February ever following Black Panther ($242.2M) and Deadpool ($152.2M). It has now dethroned the former third place holder of Fifty Shades of Grey at $93M.
Even with the current critical and CinemaScore rating, there’s still expectation the film will become the highest Ant-Man entry, which it would manage by passing $622M. To reach though, it’ll need a better multiplier around 2,6 at least, which might be the biggest challenge. A rejuvenated market may help push its legs, as our only real comparison is during last year when fiilms barely had any momentum and multiple weeks of barely any major releases.
Source: Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety
