The reputation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has significantly changed in the last five years, with blockbusters not getting the same kind of warm reception from critics as those released pre-Avengers: Endgame and titles unable to replicate prior levels of buzz, but still, one franchise streak has remained unbroken: Marvel Studios has released over two dozen movies, and every single one of them has hit #1 at the weekend box office in their opening weekend. That streak will eventually come to an end, like all things, but Julius Onah’s Captain America: Brave New World has done its part to keep it going.
The latest feature from the MCU has gotten a very mixed response in the run-up to its release (I personally gave Captain America 4 a two-star CinemaBlend review), but there was enough curiosity among the movie-going public that it was able to debut at the top of the domestic box office charts. Check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.
|
TITLE |
WEEKEND GROSS |
DOMESTIC GROSS |
LW |
THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1. Captain America: Brave New World* |
$88,500,000 |
$88,500,000 |
N/A |
4,105 |
|
2. Paddington In Peru* |
$13,000,000 |
$13,000,000 |
N/A |
3,890 |
|
3. Heart Eyes |
$10,000,000 |
$21,531,000 |
2 |
3,102 |
|
4. Dog Man |
$9,730,000 |
$66,816,000 |
1 |
3,334 |
|
5. Ne Zha 2* |
$7,300,000 |
$7,300,000 |
N/A |
660 |
|
6. Love Hurts |
$4,370,000 |
$12,289,000 |
3 |
3,055 |
|
7. Mufasa: The Lion King |
$4,158,000 |
$240,761,300 |
4 |
2,240 |
|
8. One Of Them Days |
$2,975,000 |
$43,511,000 |
6 |
1,357 |
|
9. Companion |
$1,870,000 |
$18,760,000 |
5 |
1,062 |
|
10. Flight Risk |
$1,640,000 |
$27,902,263 |
8 |
1,414 |
Captain America: Brave New World Has The Biggest Opening Weekend Of 2025 Thus Far, But There Are Reasons To Worry About Its Future
It used to be practically a sure-thing that a new Marvel Studios film would debut making nine figures at the box office… but that hasn’t been the case in quite a while. The market changed dramatically as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and simply not every title is guaranteed to be a super hit. There are still some big success stories, like Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: No Way Home (which had the second biggest MCU debut ever in December 2021) and Shawn Levy‘s Deadpool & Wolverine from last year, but Captain America: Brave New World didn’t quite compete on the level of those titles.
According to The Numbers, the new film starring Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford made $88.5 million in its first weekend at the domestic box office. In terms of MCU opening weekends, that ranks it between Jon Watts‘ Spider-Man: Far From Home ($92.6 million) and Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World ($85.7 million). It’s not great, but things could be a lot worse (you may remember that Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels made about half of Captain America: Brave New World‘s debut numbers when it hit theaters in November 2023).
It’s a decent start for the film, but there is reason for the studio to be concerned about how it will fare long term. While there is clearly still a passionate fanbase that exists for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that percentage of the movie-going public will consistently show up every time a new blockbuster arrives, the franchise has had some trouble in recent years when it comes to weekend-to-weekend drops – particularly titles that fail to stir up much positive buzz. The aforementioned The Marvels saw its ticket sales drop 78 percent in its second Friday-to-Sunday. Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love And Thunder fell 68 percent. Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania experienced a 70 percent dip.
Captain America: Brave New World is definitely a candidate for this kind of fall. While there is sometimes a schism that forms between critics and audiences, it doesn’t appear as though we are going to see that happen in this case. On top of the tepid reviews, the CinemaScore for the new MCU film isn’t great. The three previous Captain America movies – John Johnston’s Captain America: The First Avenger and Joe and Anthony Russo‘s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America Civil War – got “A-“, “A” and “A” grades from the audience surveys; the fourth film in the series has gotten a “B-.”
If Captain America: Brave New World does experience a 70 percent drop, that means only adding $26.6 million domestically in its second weekend, and that won’t be great for the film’s long term outlook. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the film had a budget of $180 million (not including publicity and advertising costs), and it may be a bit slow to make all that money back.
Obviously money from abroad will help, and people are showing up for the movie thus far in foreign markets. Despite America being in the title, the blockbuster actually did better outside of the United States (and Canada) this weekend than it did in. Globally to date, the film has made $180.9 million.
Paddington In Peru Performs Decently As Box Office Counterprogramming
Because of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s dominance at the box office in the last 17 years, competition is usually lacking when one of the franchise’s big new films arrive. This weekend, however, Dougal Wilson’s Paddington In Peru was released by Sony Pictures as counterprogramming to Captain America: Brave New World, and with the MCU title having a relatively soft start, the new Paddington sequel was able to put up some decent numbers.
Paddington In Peru is actually somewhat late to arrive in the United States, as it has been debuting in foreign markets since last fall, but it has earned widespread acclaim, and people really do seem to love the titular bear. The new movie has already made $115 million aboard, and it arrived domestically this week to add $13 million to its global gross. By modern box office standards, $13 million isn’t a huge number, but it actually is more than the $11 million Paul King’s Paddington 2 made in its opening weekend in 2018 (King’s first Paddington film debuted with a $19 million haul).
Unlike the situation with Captain America: Brave New World, and recognizing that family movies are doing particularly well on the big screen these days), it’s easy to imagine the silly adventure having a nice box office run in the coming weeks.
Heart Eyes Gets A Major Valentine’s Day Bump To Leap Frog Over Dog Man
While most of the industry’s focus is on the high-profile new releases from this past Friday, I will close out this weekend’s box office report by shining a light on Josh Reuben’s Heart Eyes. When the romantic slasher film debuted on February 7, it was jumping the gun on Valentine’s Day and had to deal with the competition of the Super Bowl on the small screen. It didn’t end up doing particularly well as a result – but this weekend was a completely different story.
The movie didn’t change its number of theaters, but it actually saw its ticket sales go up 20 percent compared to last weekend (it made $8.3 million in its opening weekend and $10 million over the last three days). That’s a pretty awesome and significant development for a low budget feature, and it’s another big win for horror, as genre fans are totally feasting so far in 2025.