'Quantumania' Has Biggest Opening Weekend of 2023
by EG
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania had a strong oepning weekend, not surprising given that the movie is the first Marvel film of 2023. However, it remains to be seen whether it will continue to do good business in theaters given that it's received some of the worst all-time reviews for a Marvel movie and a lukewarm assessment from many movie-goers. Read on for details.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘s sting is working.
Marking the first studio event pic of 2023, the third film in Marvel Studios and Disney’s stand-alone superhero series is headed for a franchise-best domestic debut of $118 million at the Presidents Day box office, including $104 million for the three days. Estimates will be updated on Monday.
Overseas, the Marvel pic collected $121.3 million for an early global start of $238.3 million. One sore spot was China, where the movie collected a tepid $19.2 million, far less than the previous two installments. It is the first Marvel and Disney movie to get a day-and-date release in the Middle Kingdom since Avengers: Endgame in 2019, and there’s concern the brand may have lost its sheen, or that the overall appetite for Hollywood superhero fare has waned (DC’s upcoming Shazam! Fury of the Gods will be a key test).
In North America, when comparing like-for-like three-day numbers, Ant-Man 3 opened an impressive 37 percent ahead of the last film despite poor reviews and a tepid B CinemaScore from audiences.
The first Ant-Man launched to $57.2 million domestically over its first three-day weekend — the lowest start of any MCU offering — on its way to earning $519.3 million globally. Three years later, the second film, Ant-Man and the Wasp, started off with $75.8 million in North America before topping out at $622.7 million worldwide. The preview earnings for the two films were $6 million and $12 million, respectively.
The threequel reunites director Peyton Reed with actors Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly. The cast also includes Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton, Bill Murray, Katy O’Brian, William Jackson Harper, James Cutler and David Dastmalchian.
One challenge for Quantumania: Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer is presently 48 percent, the second-worst of any film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe behind Eternals (47 percent), and notably behind the Tomatometer rankings for 2012’s Ant-Man (83 percent) and 2015’s Ant-Man and the Wasp (87 percent). Generally speaking, male-skewing superhero fare is more immune to bad notices than other genres.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.