It might be for the best that we have nearly a year to wait before Supergirl and Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrive in theaters, because superhero fatigue is getting harder to shrug off as wishful thinking from the genre's detractors.
This weekend, The Fantastic Four: First Steps reached $434.2 million at the worldwide box office, with that broken down to $230.4 million domestically and $203.8 million overseas.
That makes it the highest-grossing MCU movie of 2025, easily beating Captain America: Brave New World ($415.3 million) and Thunderbolts* ($382.4 million). It will surpass $450 million next week, but $500 million isn't a safe bet as the movie has had much weaker legs than expected. As a result, revised expectations place it at a final cume of $490 million - $510 million.
Will Disney be happy with that? Well, it's the biggest Fantastic Four movie to date and received glowing reviews from fans and critics alike, so it's not a terrible result. However, with a reported $200 million budget (not including marketing), barely breaking even might not be good enough to ensure Marvel's First Family has their own franchise post-Avengers: Secret Wars.
In the U.S., The Fantastic Four: First Steps faced a 60% drop, grossing $15.5 million and surpassing Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' entire $224.5 million haul.
What of Superman? Well, that's reached $578.8 million worldwide, making it the year's biggest superhero movie. The DC Studios reboot has been a bigger attraction than Marvel Studios' latest effort, grossing $331.2 million in North America and a so-so $247.6 million internationally, where the Man of Tomorrow simply isn't a draw.
$600 million worldwide is guaranteed, but the movie is soaring there as quickly as expected, and while it could wrap up its run with $620 million - $640 million, it will not top Man of Steel's $670 million gross. Not helping matters is Superman's reported combined production and marketing budget of $350 million, making it $50 million more expensive than The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
This is still a good start for the DCU, but more work needs to be done in the years ahead by James Gunn and Peter Safran if they hope to see their "Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters" plan reach its full potential.
Set against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world, Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps introduces Marvel’s First Family—Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as they face their most daunting challenge yet.
Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, they must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner). And if Galactus’ plan to devour the entire planet and everyone on it weren’t bad enough, it suddenly gets very personal.
Superman, DC Studios' first feature film to hit the big screen, is soared into theaters worldwide this summer from Warner Bros. Pictures. In his signature style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness of humankind.
The movie stars David Corenswet in the dual role of Superman/Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.
Both The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Superman are now playing in theaters.