Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps has hit a rough patch with its first Monday box office numbers, released unusually late on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. The film earned $10.4 million domestically, a figure that raises concerns for Marvel, especially when compared to recent superhero films and the studio’s expectations for a strong rebound.
This Monday haul falls short of DC Studios’ Superman, which grossed $12.9 million on its first Monday, July 14, 2025. More strikingly, it lags behind Marvel’s 2023 underperformer Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which pulled in $14.28 million on its first Monday. Even Captain America: Brave New World, considered a major commercial disappointment with an $88.8 million opening weekend, outperformed First Steps on its first Monday with $11.17 million.
Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer in The Fantastic Four: First Steps – YouTube, Marvel Entertainment
The late release of these numbers—among the last films to report for the day—suggests hesitation from the studio, possibly to downplay the underwhelming performance. First Steps opened to $117.6 million domestically and $216.7 million globally, trailing Superman’s $125 million domestic and $220 million global debut.
While the film was praised by some for its retro-futuristic style and strong ensemble, including Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, its Monday drop signals potential trouble in sustaining audience interest.
The cast of Fantastic Four: First Steps – YouTube, Marvel Entertainment
Analysts expected First Steps to leverage its 86% Rotten Tomatoes score, 64% Criticless score, and A- CinemaScore to reverse Marvel’s recent theatrical struggles, following lackluster performances from Captain America: Brave New World ($413.6 million globally) and Thunderbolts ($382.1 million globally). However, the Monday numbers suggest a front-loaded weekend, with a projected second-weekend decline of around 60%, potentially landing at $47 million domestically.
Several factors may explain the dip. The film faced direct competition from Superman, which retained strong audience interest in its third weekend, grossing $24.9 million. Additionally, First Steps saw lower family attendance (17% versus the genre’s typical 21% for PG-13 superhero films), particularly in suburban and rural markets, according to EntTelligence.
The Thing and Herbie the Robot in Fantastic Four: First Steps – YouTube, Marvel Entertainment
This demographic shortfall could limit its staying power, despite premium format contributions like IMAX, which accounted for 13.6% of its opening weekend.
Marvel had high hopes for First Steps to kick off Phase Six of the MCU and set the stage for Avengers: Doomsday. The film’s $200 million-plus production budget, coupled with significant marketing costs, means it needs sustained box office momentum to break even. While its global debut of $218 million is a franchise record for Fantastic Four, the Monday figures cast doubt on its ability to match the longevity of top MCU performers, all of which crossed $300 million domestically after opening above $117 million.
Galactus in Fantastic Four: First Steps – YouTube, Marvel Entertainment
As Marvel looks ahead, the studio may need to reassess its strategy to regain audience trust after a string of inconsistent releases. First Steps’ box office trajectory suggests Marvel’s first family still faces an uphill battle to reclaim the MCU’s former glory.
How do you feel about the Fantastic Four Monday box office? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
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Unless F4 has a combined budget of >$300 million, it’s actually set to break even before it’s pulled from theaters. Gunn’s Superman? Not so much going by the drastic dropoffs week to week and even day to day. I’d rather see both crash and burn because I’m so sick of Gunn flicks and the M-She-U.
But if Marvel can beat out Gunn in net profits and trigger another tirade that further destroys his career, I’ll consider that a win. Plus it’s not like F4 succeeding or failing is going to do a thing to stop woke Disney. But Supes being a major loss has real potential to trigger a shakeup inside WBD–or just collapse the company altogether.
Let’s the do the sums, shall we?
The Fantastic Four budget was $200M BEFORE the major reshoots, so… up to even double.
Add on at least $100Million for marketing and cinemas’ 50%+ cut of all ticket-money… You’re looking at a movie that will lose hundreds of Millions. That makes a $800 Million break-even point, roughly.
This is the worse-case scenario. It’s hard to see how FF could possibly be doing worse than that, for such a supposed Tent-pole event movie, one that has been in the public’s eye for six months or so. The M-She-U ploughs on, a total disaster, and deservedly so.
It’s a tragedy, because, if Hollywood were right wing, we would have had classics to enjoy, like from last century.
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[…] Garden Note that this decrease is behind the other weak performance films, including the reputable bomb […]
The biggest problem of FF4 it’s utterly and completely mundane, mediocre tv flick. It had nothing interesting. And the saying: Half blind between blind is king doesn’t exactly work anymore, because the trust is simply gone. People doesn’t care anymore about marvel trash no matter how good or bad it is. They no longer hope, hate watch or are interested in the slightest. And Pedro’s controversies and hypocrisy didn’t help much either.