It's a time of celebration, because The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now on Disney+. Set in the 1960s, the film took Marvel's First Family back to its roots of space exploration and scientific wonder. The team's family dynamic was also at the forefront of the story, with Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn bringing the characters to life pretty much flawlessly. The film arrived to an impressive positive reception, scoring an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, things weren't as hot financially.
First Steps made $521 million worldwide, and for a movie with a reported budget of $200 million before marketing, that number is likely not high enough for it to have broken even theatrically. Now, though, there's been a fun new development regarding the optics of the film's financial performance. As mentioned, First Steps is now on Disney+. Upon opening the app, some users will have the film front and center on their home page. There, the movie's poster is accompanied by this message:
"Watch the Box Office Hit Now."
Though Fantastic Four was the highest-grossing Marvel Studios project worldwide in 2025—coming in ahead of Thunderbolts* ($382 million) and Captain America: Brave New World ($415 million)—it was still considered a disappointment, so it's curious to see it labeled as a box office success on the streamer. As to why Disney would brand the movie a hit, it's likely a marketing effort to make the project as enticing as possible for potential new viewers. Films are typically considered more relevant when they're released in theaters before hitting streaming. They're also arguably given an added status boost when they're box office successes.
Labeling the movie—which is freshly out of theaters—a financial success could influence people into watching it. Admittedly, streaming viewers may not provide a significant financial benefit for Disney when compared to ticket-buyers during the film's theatrical run. However, enough viewers tuning into First Steps could, theoretically, boost public awareness around it. That could benefit Marvel in the long term, given the pivotal role the Fantastic Four are expected to play in Avengers: Doomsday. Increasing the heroes' public profile (as little as said increase may be) by marketing their film could help with excitement for the upcoming team-up event.
Keep in mind, Disney+ declaring Fantastic Four a hit isn't, by any means, some sort of Earth-shattering scandal. It's more of an amusing representation of a marketing push.
Having said that all of that, it may also not be entirely out of the question to label First Steps as a success. Superman, from DC Studios—which came out in the same month as Fantastic Four—made $615 million worldwide. That is roughly only a $94-million difference. Superman is often perceived as a massive financial success, and, realistically speaking, the difference between it and First Steps is nearly negligible. Given that, it's not shocking to see Marvel Studios seemingly attempting to use the same message used for Superman to improve public perception of its tentpole.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now streaming on Disney+.