THE FANTASTIC FOUR Exceeds Expectations With $24.4M Thursday - Here's The Latest On U.S. And Global Openings

THE FANTASTIC FOUR Exceeds Expectations With $24.4M Thursday - Here's The Latest On U.S. And Global Openings

The Fantastic Four: First Steps has exceeded expectations during Thursday previews, giving us a better idea of how the Marvel Studios reboo will perform at both the domestic and international box office.

By JoshWilding - Jul 25, 2025 12:07 PM EST
Filed Under: Fantastic Four
Source: Variety

Variety brings word that The Fantastic Four: First Steps earned a massive $24.4 million on Thursday in North America, the biggest haul of 2025 in terms of previews (the previous record holder was Superman with $22.5 million). 

According to the trade, this puts Marvel's First Family on track for a $100 million - $110 million opening weekend. Something doesn't quite add up there, especially when Superman opened to $125 million earlier this month after making less from previews. 

Chances are, Disney is looking to temper expectations; the optics are better to overperform than underperform, and touting a potential $130 million opening, for example, only to fall short would completely change the narrative when final numbers are reported. 

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is still eying an international debut of $90 million - $100 million, but again, the reboot is expected to do better with overseas audiences than Superman did. It seems we'll have to wait and see how high this team can soar over the weekend. 

It's said that the Marvel Studios movie cost $200 million to produce and $100 million to market, so positive word-of-mouth will be crucial in the weeks ahead. With $1 billion no longer the norm for superhero movies, now might be a good time for Marvel and DC to figure out how to make these things for a lot less money. 

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a return to form for the MCU, as Captain America: Brave New World made $12 million in previews before an $88.5 million opening weekend. As for Thunderbolts*, it earned $11.5 million ahead of a $76 million debut. 

Here's a wild factoid for you: The Fantastic Four: First Steps's $24.4 million Thursday is almost as much as 2015's Fantastic Four grossed during its entire opening weekend ($25.6 million). 

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.

In our review of the movie, we concluded, "The Fantastic Four is an exceptional introduction to the MCU’s First Family, and thanks to a Jack Kirby-infused feel that’s unlike anything we’ve seen before, it proves to be a quintessential superhero movie with Marvel Studios at its brilliant best."

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now playing in theaters. 

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TyrantBossMedia
TyrantBossMedia - 7/25/2025, 12:19 PM
Box Office Article Tally: 1
Huskers
Huskers - 7/25/2025, 2:27 PM
@vectorsigma - yea I was gonna say that’s at least 2 in 2 days!
vectorsigma
vectorsigma - 7/25/2025, 2:37 PM
@Huskers - we should have tracking on how many josh will do for a movie 😭
TyrantBossMedia
TyrantBossMedia - 7/25/2025, 4:42 PM
@vectorsigma - Thanks. 2 in 2 days.
amesjazz
amesjazz - 7/25/2025, 12:20 PM
Genuinely shocked how much i enjoyed it. Hope it does well
Canyoublush
Canyoublush - 7/25/2025, 1:27 PM
@amesjazz - I wouldn’t expect anything less. Marvel studios don’t miss. They don’t play. When they are on point they always deliver. No vanilla bullshit unlike Warner Bros.
ferf
ferf - 7/25/2025, 1:47 PM
@Canyoublush - you simultaneously say they don’t miss and imply they are sometimes not on point lmao. 50% of the time it works every time, eh?
McMurdo
McMurdo - 7/25/2025, 1:56 PM
@Canyoublush - they made Reed a moron who wants to teleport Earth as if gravity and orbital dynamics are irrelevant. He always refused teleporting a entire planet in the comics because of how severe the consequences would be. Strictly peoples and at times a entire locale but never a planet. Not once. And they nerfed his power set too. Galactus almost stretches him to death lol. Reed's power set has allowed him to survive nuclear blasts in the comics. He's almost unkillable especially not by stretching. He's been stretched for miles and fully endured in the literature. And they made Galactus dumb too. He wants Franklin but just politely allows their lightspeed drive to remain untouched so that they can escape back to earth so that the third act can happen. This is what happens when you have 4 writers on your movie. The script completely undermines Reed's characterization in the film. Supposed to be a genius but his actions say otherwise.
dragon316
dragon316 - 7/25/2025, 2:27 PM
@Canyoublush - she hulk , antman three , eternals, captain marvel two , there’s more those are main ones
RockReigns
RockReigns - 7/25/2025, 12:21 PM
Expectations were $26 - 27 million.

But this number is fantastic. Well done Marvel.
ThorArms
ThorArms - 7/25/2025, 12:25 PM
@RockReigns - From which outlet? I never saw that. Always saw $20-24
RockReigns
RockReigns - 7/25/2025, 12:29 PM
@ThorArms - BoxOfficeTheory and TFL.
ThorArms
ThorArms - 7/25/2025, 12:35 PM
@RockReigns - Deadline, Variety, and THR all reported 22-24...those are usually the accurate ones to follow. Never heard of Box office theory...the guy has 1k followers? lol. He also predicted Superman would open with $175million
RockReigns
RockReigns - 7/25/2025, 12:38 PM
@ThorArms - BOT is what Josh and CBM has been posting.
TheJok3r
TheJok3r - 7/25/2025, 12:21 PM
I think $130-135 million domestically is a safe bet.
RockReigns
RockReigns - 7/25/2025, 12:24 PM
@TheJok3r - some analysts said the numbers slowed way down on the final days. Missing the expected $27M. It could be very front loaded.

I hope it does but $130+M though. Deserved.
ThorArms
ThorArms - 7/25/2025, 12:22 PM
Shocked that my favorite character was Johnny and Surfer.
Canyoublush
Canyoublush - 7/25/2025, 1:10 PM
@ThorArms - Right! Surfer slaps!!!! I really liked her arc.
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 7/25/2025, 12:25 PM
Glad to hear it. Looking forward to seeing it; this looks like a great love letter to the 60s comics.
AllsGood
AllsGood - 7/25/2025, 12:29 PM
What made The Fantastic Four: First Steps so AWESOME I expected lots of Jokes.

I realized that The Fantastic Four: First Steps had more of Captain America: Winter Soldier touch to it.

10 Stars / 10 Stars from me.

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GeneralZod
GeneralZod - 7/25/2025, 1:06 PM
@AllsGood - "10 Stars / 10 Stars from me." So it had imperfections, then. Because from you I would have expected 12 out of 10.
AllsGood
AllsGood - 7/25/2025, 1:10 PM
@GeneralZod - My Opinion and Review.
AllsGood
AllsGood - 7/25/2025, 1:16 PM
@GeneralZod - What's your review Nolans Dark Knight movie?
GeneralZod
GeneralZod - 7/25/2025, 1:25 PM
@AllsGood - 7/10.
AllsGood
AllsGood - 7/25/2025, 1:45 PM
@GeneralZod - Nolans The Dark Knight is another 10 Star Movie. The Joker made that movie a classic.
AllsGood
AllsGood - 7/25/2025, 2:31 PM
@GeneralZod - DC first Wonder Woman movie was AWESOME another 10 Star Movie.
SuperCat
SuperCat - 7/25/2025, 12:30 PM
User Comment Image
AllsGood
AllsGood - 7/25/2025, 12:34 PM
ANYONE SEE CreateNowSlpL8r

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SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 7/25/2025, 3:12 PM
@AllsGood - He's busy making a post about how his "Traditionalist" point of view is far superior than the general audience
BlackStar25
BlackStar25 - 7/25/2025, 3:35 PM
@AllsGood - Probably hard at work writing his review...

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RockReigns
RockReigns - 7/25/2025, 12:35 PM
In China’s BoxOffice, the debut of F4 in the MCU seems DOA, after debuting out of Top 3 in #5, grossing soft $1.7M on #2 LOWEST FRI Opening Day EVER for the MCU, incl $150k THU previews.

Even opened below Superman which did $2.4M.
TyrantBossMedia
TyrantBossMedia - 7/25/2025, 12:42 PM
@RockReigns - And Disney only gets maybe 30% of those ticket sales from China. $1.7 x .30 = $0.51M

Now Top Gun Maverick earned about $1.7B and it was never released in China, but there a few factors to consider here:

1) Comic Book movies are losing their luster
2) Marvel has severely damaged their track record since 2018. 7 years of damage is very bad and hard to dig out from underneath.
3) Some, I don't feel many, will have an issue with Silver Surfette....see also #2
4) Tom Cruise is an international superstar so his name will carry more weight than Pedro Pascal.
5) Top Gun had a built in fan based for 40 years. Yes, Fantastic 4 has a fan base, but it's not as widespread as Top Gun, nor is it as recent.

We shall see.
GeneralZod
GeneralZod - 7/25/2025, 1:05 PM
@TyrantBossMedia - It's as if Marvel Studios purposefully wanted to earn less box office revenue with Fantastic Four. A John Hamm-casted Reed Richards would have sold more tickets, especially with women in their 40s and 50s. I guess they didn't want a confident Reed. A Norin Radd-casted Silver Surfer, non-CGI, with a good theatrical-type actor to portray the tragic figure that is Radd would have sold more tickets. So when we see the final box office revenue tally, it should actually be a higher number, at least +$100 million.
JacobsLadder
JacobsLadder - 7/25/2025, 1:12 PM
@GeneralZod - I really don't know why it's so hard for people for simply accept that the comic book movie genre has run its course. It happens to every genre and CBMs have had a pretty solid 20-year run, and a peak that probably won't be matched. There will always be CBMS but anybody who thinks some return to 2018 or the days when a shit movie like Captain Marvel could make $1 billion are over with. I honestly don't understand this desperation to cling onto something that's gone. Studios won't keep spending $300 million for a movie that pulls in $600 million at the box office. The problem is Hollywood has nothing else but this shit. There is nowhere else to go.
TyrantBossMedia
TyrantBossMedia - 7/25/2025, 1:28 PM
@GeneralZod - You're not going to get an argument from me on those points.

Just make it accurate to the decades old comic book stories with which we grew up.
By not doing so you lost a portion of the fan base who craves comic book accuracy.

It's like when Disney changed who Luke Skywalker was. They took a hero that we embrace for 40 years and destroyed him.
As a result....they lost massive box office and basically killed the Star Wars franchise.
GeneralZod
GeneralZod - 7/25/2025, 1:50 PM
@JacobsLadder - i don't think (yet) that the genre has run it's course (judging from the $1.3 billion collected from DP/W 12 months ago), but I do think Hollywood is at its first truly existential moment in its ~ 100-year history, and it all depends whether they will continue to double-down and alienate a good chunk of audience or get back to basics. If the still-most important action-movie studio (Marvel Studios) continues gender-bending key heroes and villains in an effort to balance out genders in their stories (the same applies to Star Wars), Hollywood is [frick]ed and we are done.

We will then wait for the earlier Golden Age characters to fall into the public domain (starting around 2034, assuming current US copyright law is not amended) and then AI producers will create the comic book-accurate, agenda-free content we have been craving for.
vectorsigma
vectorsigma - 7/25/2025, 2:03 PM
@RockReigns - ouch. Now hateful marvelites will boycott my boy Ne Zha 🥲
spr0cks
spr0cks - 7/25/2025, 3:00 PM
@RockReigns -
It's gonna be a rough weekend for you after all is said and done.

It hasn't started out great with FF4 already beating Superman's preview numbers from 2 day less of previews
(Superman previewed on a Tuesday and so had Tuesday and Wednesday numbers (granted, weekdays) to add to its total compared to FF4 that previewed on Thursday only)

I can see why you'd hang your hat on China numbers (Which is always a place where MCU movies typically struggle).
Let's see what the numbers look like from other overseas markets like South America (with Pedro being a lead in the movie) and in Europe (with 2 British co-leads)

JacobsLadder
JacobsLadder - 7/25/2025, 4:32 PM
@GeneralZod - There will be the occasional hit. No Way Home made a ton of $$ but the gimmicks are running out. How many characters are in Doomsday? How many of those are Fox characters? The days of pumping out 3-4 of these a year are finished. It was a good run, it was fun, but we need something else.
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