The Fantastic Four: First Stepsis looking to be the box office rebound the MCU needs, if box office tracking is anything to go by. When the tickets forThe Fantastic Four: First Stepswent on sale,multiple theaters and ticket-selling sites reported having crasheddue to ticket demand. Fandango reported it was the most in-demand advance ticket seller of 2025. The hype behind the Fantastic Four’s arrival in the MCU is a feeling fans haven’t felt in some time.
Box Office Theory reports thatThe Fantastic Four: First Stepsis forecasting to gross between $125 million and $136 million in its opening weekend. While this would be down considerably fromDeadpool & Wolverine’s $211 million the same weekend last year, it is well above the opening weekends for 2025’s two previous MCU titles,Captain America: Brave New World($88 million) andThunderbolts*($74 million). Grossing anywhere between its projected gross would makeThe Fantastic Four: First Stepsthe third-biggest opening weekend for Marvel Studios in July, behindDeadpool & Wolverine, andThor: Love and Thunder. See the full chart below:
Opening Weekend
Release Date
Deadpool & Wolverine
$211 million
July 11, 2025
Thor: Love & Thunder
$144 million
July 26, 2025
Spider-Man: Homecoming
$117 million
July 01, 2025
Spider-Man: Far From Home
$92 million
July 09, 2025*
Black Widow
$80 million
July 11, 2025
Ant-Man and the Wasp
$75 million
July 15, 2025
Captain America: The First Avenger
$65 million
July 26, 2025
$57 million
June 07, 2025
*Spider-Man: Far From Homeopened on a Tuesday.
Full 6-day Fourth of July weekend gross was $185 million
‘Fantastic Four’ Director Says Film Will Directly Combat One Frequent MCU Complaint
Matt Shakman took inspiration from a specific time period when preparing for the production of the upcoming MCU movie.
Clobberin' the Box Office
If the tracking forThe Fantastic Four: First Stepsis accurate, and it doesn’t increase or decrease, that means that aside fromDeadpool & Wolverine, it will be the biggest MCU opening weekend sinceBlack Panther: Wakanda Foreveron November 22, which brought in $181 million. That not only putsThe Fantastic Four: First StepsMarvel’s other 2025 releases, but also MCU franchise entries likeGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3($122 million) andAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania($106 million).The Fantastic Four: First Stepsopening weekend will be a far cry from theabysmal opening weekendThe Fantastic Fouropened to nearly ten years ago.
Regarding 2025 opening weekends,The Fantastic Four: First Stepswould be the third biggest of the year behindA Minecraft Movie($162 million) andLilo & Stitch($146 million). However, between now and then, many other films will compete to enter the 2025 domestic opening weekend top five, includingHow to Train Your Dragon,Jurassic World: Rebirth, andSuperman.Supermanmight be the biggest competitor forThe Fantastic Four: First Steps, asJames Gunn’s DCU launch title is tracking in the $175 million range.SupermanandThe Fantastic Four: First Stepsestimations are just that though, and we all know what happened to the low projections ofA Minecraft Movieand how things can change very quickly.
Following the delay ofAvengers: Doomsdayfrom May to December 2026,The Fantastic Four: First Stepsis currently slated as thelast MCU movie released in theaters for over a yearuntilSpider-Man: Brand New Dayopens on August 06, 2025. Marvel Studios certainly has a lot riding onThe Fantastic Four, as the team are positioned to be the new anchor heroes of the MCU’s future and will be lead characters in bothAvengers: DoomsdayandAvengers: Secret Wars. After multiple failed attempts to bring Marvel’s first family to the big screen, audiences look to find a version that has finally captured their attention.
Source:Box Office Theory
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
