Despite not-so-good reviews, Marvel continued its domination at the box office with its latest release, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The first picture in Phase Five conquered the charts taking in $105.5 million over three days including Thursday previews. The film is projected to earn $120M by the end of Monday, which is President’s Day in the U.S., making it the best opening of this sub-franchise.
Quantumania has the second-worst Rotten Tomatoes critical score of any MCU flick, trailing just behind Eternals with a 47% score. However, while Eternals didn’t rank well with viewers either, Quanumania‘s audience score is much higher at 84%. Exiting audiences were along the same lines with it earning a B via CinemaScore and 3.5 stars via PostTrak. While that seems average, all of the Ant-Man movies tend to run in the middle of the road.
And just for the record, this picture is holding a little better over just these few days as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder.
In second place, James Cameron has surpassed himself, as Avatar: The Way of Water is now the third-highest-grossing movie of all time internationally, with $2.243 billion, swimming past Titanic, despite that film’s recent rerelease. Domestically, it’s at #9 for all time and is still behind Titanic.
While several movies have done well in 2023, it seems that those movies had somewhat limited appeal and that the target audiences turned out early and didn’t return.
On the other hand, The Way of Water and another 2022 release, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, continue to draw viewers to the multiplex. Puss in Boots is back at #3, while newer successful pictures like Magic Mike’s Last Dance and Knock at the Cabin have dropped to the last two slots on the Top Five. 80 For Brady fell out of the Top Five all together.
You can check out the Top Five below. Bear in mind, that the four-day tallies are projections.
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- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Disney) – 3-day $105.5M/ 4-day $120M/Wk 1
- Avatar: The Way of Water (Disney) – 3-day $6.45M/ 4-day $7.5M/ Total $658.8M /Wk 10
- Puss in Boots: Last Wish (Universal) – 3-day $5.3M/ 4-day $7.05M/ Total $167.8M/Wk 9
- Magic Mike’s Last Dance (Warner Bros.) – 3-day $5.46M/ 4-day $6.26M/ Total $18.85M/Wk 2
- Knock at the Cabin (Universal) – 3-day $3.97M/ 4-day $4.59M/ Total $31M /Wk 3
As is typical, studios are leaving a Marvel movie a bit of space as they tend to reign over several weeks, although, in all honesty, that seems to be less and less a reality. But along those lines, nothing major is opening next weekend, however, Universal’s Cocaine Bear is getting a limited release.
The trailer for that picture created a ton of online buzz last year. Because it’s a lower-budget project with no HUGE stars, it’s getting a slower rollout. Hopefully, this slow rollout will allow some people to check it out and spread positive word of mouth to grow the audience. But that’s not guaranteed, and we kind of need to see how people react. (The review embargo hasn’t yet been lifted.)
However, I can’t help but think of another film that created a ton of online buzz only to flop in theaters — Snakes on a Plane. Will Cocaine Bear prove to be a better film with a stronger performance? We’ll see.
Did you check out Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania this weekend? If so, will you head back to see it again?
