'Captain America: Brave New World' Has a Solid Opening Weekend
by EG
The latest Marvel movie, Captain America: Brave New World, opened this weekend, and its ticket sales were in line with expectations. That's good news for the studio, which has seen interest in its movies dwindle in recent years. However, the audience reaction to Brave New World is among the worst for any Marvel movie, calling into question whether or not the movie can hang in over the long term. Read on for details.
Captain America: Brave New World delivered up an impressive $40 million at the Friday box office, including $12 million in previews, as Marvel Studios attempts to reboot the franchise with an entirely new cast. That’s even better than the opening-day gross of Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($36.9 million).
This puts the year’s first tentpole on track to open to $90 million-$96 million plus over the four-day Valentine’s Day/Presidents Day weekend, one of the top showings ever for the holiday and despite receiving a B- CinemaScore from audiences, the worst grade given any a title in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Not all audiences feel the same, however. Brave New World boasts a pleasing 79 percent audience ranking on Rotten Tomatoes, while it’s earning strong exit scores on PostTrak.
Presidents Day is the same weekend the first Deadpool opened, as well as Marvel’s Black Panther and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which debuted to $120 million over the three-day Presidents Day weekend in 2023 after earning $17.5 million in previews.
For the three days, Brave New World is expected to earn $82 million-$83 million plus (rivals believe it could climb higher and cross $98 million for the four days). As expected, the pic is skewing male. And it’s definitely getting a boost from playing to an ethnically diverse audience.
Overseas, the tentpole opens everywhere, including in China, Japan and South Korea, and is counting on collecting $100 million.
Marvel, which had to take serious stock of its strategy and future after several films faltered, culminating with The Marvels, is in a far better place now thanks to the stunning success of Deadpool & Wolverine, which became the top-grossing R-rated pic of all time after earning north of $1.3 billion globally in the summer of 2024. The studio is hoping for a solid swing with Captain America, which faced its share of challenges in getting to the big screen.
It’s back to the basics when it comes to the new movie, which sees Anthony Mackie‘s Sam Wilson take up the mantle of Captain America, the hero previously played by Chris Evans.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.