There’s good news for Fantastic Four 2025 box office predictions as the Marvel reboot heads into the opening weekend. We reported earlier that Superman’s success has taken away some of the momentum away from The Fantastic Four: First Steps, slightly lowering its high-end projections. But a new report explains that Marvel’s upcoming film is actually beating its DC competitor in several ways that will help it have strong overall sales in both its domestic and international debut.
What is the latest Fantastic Four First Steps box office projections?
In the United States, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is expected to earn roughly $136 million or somewhere in the range of $125.1-145 million for its opening weekend.
This latest projection comes from a July 23 report from Box Office Theory, which believes that Fantastic Four 2025 is leaning toward the higher end of that range due to its overall appeal and strong critic reviews, as shown by its 85 percent fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. It also notes that traditional industry tracking has the movie earning $100-110 million at the US and Canada box office during the same time period. In support of these numbers, another report from Deadline says that it’s tracking toward making $190-210 million worldwide in its 3-day opener.
Specifically, the latest Box Office Theory report believes that the film will earn $25.5 million on Thursday (July 25), $37.3 million on Friday (July 26), $39.5 million on Saturday (July 27), and $33.5 million on Sunday (July 28). As a point of comparison, the site estimated that Superman 2025 would earn $135 million in its opening weekend, just $1 million shy of Fantastic Four. If it’s able to meet the expected $25 million on Thursday, that would beat Superman’s $22.5 million for its own Thursday release and be the highest since Deadpool & Wolverine’s $38.5 million in July 2024.
That said, traditional tracking still has the film performing a bit lower than Superman’s when comparing their opening weekends side by side. The DC reboot earned $220 million worldwide during that period, which is higher than the $190-210 million worldwide figure for Fantastic Four 2025.
On the upside, the site reveals that Marvel’s reboot has several advantages over its DC counterpart. Opening weekend pre-sales for the film is “pacing ahead of all 2025 releases” so far, including Lilo & Stitch, A Minecraft Movie, and Superman. The report doesn’t find it surprising that the film’s audience is primarily male-driven, but it’s still “skewing more favorably toward those under age 35 than Superman, Thunderbolts*, and Captain America: Brave New World.”
While Marvel has struggled to create a substantial hit in Phase Four and Five after Avengers: Endgame, it believes that the brand “remains sturdy when the right film comes along,” suggesting that Fantastic Four 2025 is that right film. Fans have wanted Marvel’s First Family to join the MCU for over two decades, the solid cast is led by the ever-popular Pedro Pascal, and the plot for the film is both crowd-pleasing and family-friendly. This broad appeal is expected to help the movie have a successful opener despite the competition.
The film will still face “obvious demographic cannibalism” with Superman 2025 taking up the same space of superhero films. But the James Gunn-directed film is the one that faces more trouble since Fantastic Four 2025 will likely take over IMAX and other premium viewings upon its release. That’s why Superman 2025 is projected to drop 60% in domestic sales to $23.5 million for this coming weekend. In the long term, it will take a few weeks before both movies will be able “to coexist during the dog days of summer.”
James Gunn thought that Superman 2025 was underperforming overseas due to “a certain amount of anti-American sentiment around the world.” We’ll have to see whether this also holds true for The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
