It's coming up to a week since The Fantastic Four: First Steps touched down in theaters, and after an $8.7 million Wednesday, the Marvel Studios reboot has reached $151 million at the North American box office.
Reaching that figure in just 6 days is a good result for the movie, and one that puts it on track to surpass $200 million by Sunday (or perhaps Monday at a push, depending on how today and this weekend pan out).
The Fantastic Four: First Steps dipped by 38.7% from Tuesday's "Discount Day," and is definitely lagging behind Superman. That does look set to be a bigger movie in the U.S., but we're still waiting on international figures (there, Marvel's First Family does appear to be a bigger draw than the Man of Tomorrow).
Ultimately, this is a win for both titles. While neither movie is likely to be the biggest of the summer—Jurassic World Rebirth is eyeing that honour—they have managed to prove many detractors wrong, especially those claiming the genre's time is up thanks to so-called "superhero fatigue."
Back to Superman, and after reaching $299.7 million yesterday, the first DC Studios movie is on the cusp of passing $300 million. It will have likely done so by the time you read this, making it the first solo movie featuring this character to hit that number domestically.
While the DCU reboot isn't going to cross $1 billion when all is said and done, these figures are sure to be welcomed by Warner Bros. executives who are concerned that the DC brand was a dead fish after a disastrous series of flops overseen by the previous regime. The latest of those was Joker: Folie à Deux, one of the biggest box office bombs in the studio's storied history.
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 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.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now playing in theaters. So is Superman, another movie we praised earlier this month.