It's been revealed today that The Fantastic Four: First Steps has logged the lowest five-day debut of any MCU movie on Disney+, attracting only 4.9 million views.
That's 23% below Captain America: Brave New World (6.4 million) and 10% below Thunderbolts* (5.5 million), an undeniable disaster, right? That's how it's being framed, but The Fantastic Four: First Steps ($521.9 million) earned 25% more at the box office than the former ($415.1 million), and 36% more than the latter ($382.4 million).
In other words, a greater number of people went to see the movie in theaters, rather than waiting to watch it on streaming for the first time.
That goes some way in explaining the drop. Even so, Marvel Studios will likely still be disappointed that The Fantastic Four: First Steps wasn't a bigger draw, especially when Deadpool & Wolverine attracted a reported 19.4 million views in 6 days, according to Disney.
Based on Nielsen data—which, it's worth noting, only tracks a small percentage of U.S. homes—The Fantastic Four: First Steps pulled in 556 million viewing minutes, leaving it third in the Top 10 movies chart behind Netflix's Frankenstein and KPop Demon Hunters.
Here are the reported 5-day streaming numbers for every MCU movie that's debuted on Disney+ following a theatrical release:
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — 14.1M
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 — 10.9M
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — 9.7M
Eternals — 9.2M
Captain America: Brave New World — 6.4M
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania — 6.1M
Thunderbolts* — 5.5M
The Marvels — 5.3M
Black Widow — 5.1M
The Fantastic Four: First Steps — 4.9M
Disney+ didn't do much to promote The Fantastic Four: First Steps' debut on the platform. There were no interviews with cast or crew, and nothing on social media would get fans particularly excited beyond the odd TV spot or promo.
Is this a worrying trend or a minor blip on the radar? That remains to be seen, and it's clearly still too soon to say whether we'll get a sequel featuring Marvel's First Family in the post-Avengers: Secret Wars MCU.
In our review of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, 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.
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.
The movie is now available on Digital, 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD, and Disney+.