Ant-Man: Quantumania Box Office Numbers Are In, Is Marvel Happy?
The weekend numbers are here for Ant-Man 3, but does $57 million make Marvel happy?
It’s that time again; a Marvel Cinematic Universe film has hit the theaters, and box office numbers and critic and audience responses have started rolling in. While Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the third film in the trilogy that chronicles Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang, it is also the launching point for the fifth phase of the franchise. Now that the first few day’s box office numbers are coming in, Marvel and Disney got great news as their film brought in $17.5 million on Thursday alone, according to Cosmic Book News.
While the film saw a whopping Thursday release that dwarfed the first-day release of the first two in the trilogy ($6 million for 2015’s Ant-Man and $12 million for 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp), the question remains whether or not it will have the same legs as those earlier installments. As it sits at the end of the first of a four-day weekend thanks to the Monday holiday, it is already nearly halfway to the first installment’s opening weekend numbers ($57 million) and about a fifth of the way to the second installment’s ($76 million). Of course, like any MCU release, there will inevitably be a rush of Marvel faithful running to be the first to see their newest release.
But where the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania film is going to have a bit of an uphill battle is in the response the movie has gotten from the critics. The critics didn’t have a lot of great things to say about the newest MCU installment, giving it an abysmal 48% with just a little less than 300 reviews. While the score is similar to that of the much-maligned Eternals, many of the critics cite the film’s lackluster feel and attempt at a money grab by Marvel.
Just because the critics are not a fan of the film doesn’t mean the fans will take that scathing attack on the film lying down, as they have come to the rescue on Rotten Tomatoes by giving it a score of 84% with over 2500 reviews. You can always count on the MCU’s loyal fanbase to show out when a movie is released in their favorite franchise, and they are truly all that matter when it comes to the argument for success. If they can rally their compatriots to rush to the theater and drive up the box office numbers, the studio will continue to release films regardless of critical response.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania kicks off Phase 5 with the new supervillain Kang at the center, played by the red-hot Jonathan Majors as the main point of praise for the film. After a Phase 4 left a lot of fans wishing for something with more direction and connectivity, there is the hope that Majors being involved is the power needed to turn the franchise around. If the film does have legs, a huge box office for the film that kicks off the new phase is a great start; if it doesn’t have legs and is indeed frontloaded, Phase 5 looks to have a similar start as Phase 4.
