The Box Office Performance of Captain America: Brave New World in Relation to MCU's Underperformers
While the less-than-stellar critic reviews and the movie's Cinemascore paint a grim picture for Captain America: Brave New World, we now have the real deal: box office numbers. This is the metric that ultimately determines whether a film is a triumph or a flop. Let's compare this new addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to other supposed MCU "flops," narrowing down to domestic numbers.
- Captain America: Brave New World - $88 million opening weekend
- The Marvels - $46 million opening weekend
- Eternals - $71 million opening weekend
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - $106 million opening weekend
- Thor: The Dark World - $85 million opening weekend
- Iron Man 2 - $128 million opening weekend
Placing itself right in the middle, Brave New World is marginally beating out the lowest-performing MCU movie ever, The Marvels, which managed to earn only $206 million worldwide. But how does the film stack up against other Captain America entries?
- Captain America: The First Avenger - $65 million opening weekend, earned $370 million total
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier - $95 million opening, earned $714 million total
- Captain America: Civil War - $179 million opening weekend, earned $1.1 billion total
With a third-place finish in the Captain America opening weekend stakes, it's fair to assume Brave New World could potential earn more than $600 million, assuming word-of-mouth is positive enough to keep its momentum going. This level of performance would be considered a moderate level of success compared to recent Marvel underperformers.
However, it's worth noting that Captain America: The First Avenger was an early entrant in the MCU when the universe was still in its infancy. The film managed to earn less than the more beloved Iron Man at $585 million, but this was before the MCU truly exploded. Brave New World could also be seen as a semi-sequel to 2008's Incredible Hulk, which, post-MCU, only managed to earn $264 million.
It's unclear what Disney hopes to achieve with Brave New World, but its initial performance indicates that it might just manage to avoid the dreaded "flop" label. The film's global four-day total of $192.4 million, with $100 million from the U.S. and $92.4 million from international markets, is an encouraging sign. However, the Cinemascore of "B-" suggests that its long-term success might be more uncertain than optimistic.
Comparatively, Ant-Man: Quantumania, despite having a higher opening, fell short of expectations, earning $476 million (with an even higher budget and similar scores). If Brave New World ends up following the same trajectory, it could spell trouble for the latest Captain America and for the franchise as a whole.
[1] "Captain America: Brave New World Box Office (Opening Weekend)" - Box Office Mojo (www.boxofficemojo.com)[2] "Captain America: Brave New World" - Box Office Pro (www.boxofficepro.com)[3] "Captain America: Brave New World" - Collider (collider.com)[4] "Captain America: Brave New World" - Fandango (www.fandango.com)[5] "Captain America: Brave New World" - IMDb (www.imdb.com)
- Despite the mixed reviews and lower Cinemascore for Captain America: Brave New World, Marvel's latest addition to the MCU managed an impressive $88 million opening weekend, placing it among other MCU films.
- Surprisingly, Captain America: Brave New World, despite being categorized as an underperformer in some circles, has outperformed Marvel's recent release, The Marvels, in terms of opening weekend earnings.
- Despite the 'B-' Cinemascore, Captain America: Brave New World's strong domestic opening weekend performance of $100 million is similar to that of recent Marvel underperformers, raising questions about its long-term box office prospects.
