Estimates have been removed and we now have final tallies for the weekend box office. Fantastic Four: First Steps has officially followed up a 67% drop in its second weekend with a 59% drop in its third.
Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps opened with much fanfare, earning approximately $116 million domestically and enjoying strong early momentum. However, its third weekend marked a notable downturn that signals deeper challenges for the franchise. Worse, this is the second straight weekend with a steep drop, marking the film as one of the most frontloaded movies of the post-pandemic era.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 28: Pedro Pascal speaks onstage during the Mandalorian special launch event at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on February 28, 2023. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)
During its third weekend in theaters, Fantastic Four plummeted to $15,784,767, dropping to third place behind newcomer Weapons and Freakier Friday . This performance reflects a roughly 59% week‑over‑week decline. Unfortunately for Marvel, that means Fantastic Four is likely to continue dropping at a high rate, likely indicating the film will fail to reach $500 million. That’s nowhere close to what the MCU has expected to draw in the past and signals all three Marvel films in 2025 failed not only to break the half billion mark, but also are likely financial flops.
When comparing where Superman 2025 was in its third weekend, Fantastic Four is now trailing domestically by about $60 million. And remember that James Gunn isn’t using Superman to launch a duo of films with each probably having $1.5 billion break even points. The pressure at Disney must be intense.
‘THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS’ has grossed over $430M worldwide.
Eyeing a $490–520M finish. pic.twitter.com/S1amFoXDpI
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) August 10, 2025
Beyond the steep weekend-to-weekend drop, Fantastic Four faced stiff competition, especially from a Warner Bros that seems intent on saving American cinemas.. The horror film Weapons captured the top box office spot with a strong debut and earned $42.5 million domestically. Meanwhile, Freakier Friday held the second position with roughly $29–30 million .
As of August 11th, Fantastic Four has amassed around $434 million globally. While these totals may seem solid at first glance, the sharp mid‑run declines suggest a significant lack of staying power—especially in contrast to some longer‑running Marvel entries. Indeed, critics and analysts flagged that the film’s steep second- and third-week drops — including an 80% Friday‑to‑Friday decline in week two — raise alarm for Marvel’s broader lineup, including tie‑ins to the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. Could we actually be looking at a future where the next Spider-Man movie is more assured to do well than Avengers?! It could be so given that Doomsday is being led by Pedro Pascal, Thunderbolts and the new Captain America. Quick, get Tom Holland to the front of the roster along with Chris Pratt!
Tom Holland as Spider-Man in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Marvel Studios
Another concern for Marvel, however, must be that there’s no guarantee Spider-Man can save the day either. After all, it was No Way Home’s use of nostalgia that brought in bonanza box office numbers using Andrew and Toby. Spider-Man remains a huge draw, as does Hugh Jackman… but what else is there to really justify giant budgets for the MCU?
We may have reached the point where box office returns for Marvel force the studio to operate with budgets one-third their current size. It’s not obvious that Disney and Kevin Feige are capable of such.
