Bad news for superheroes… again? After a brief respite thanks to Superman, Hollywood’s caped and cowled set is facing more difficult headlines. Despite winning the weekend, Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps dropped an alarming 66 percent in North America in its second weekend, down to $40 million. The dip places the franchise-starter alongside the likes of Marvel misfires such as Captain America: Brave New World (68 percent), Ant-Man/Quantumania (69 percent) and Thor: Love and Thunder (67 percent).
The culprit? Fantastic Four’s opening weekend audience was 70 percent male, signaling that the fanboys were out in full force at the jump — while everyone else chose to opt out. “Those audiences tend to come out big on opening weekend and then [disappear],” Sean McNulty says. “It was a very PG-adjacent movie, but the families seemingly aren’t coming out.”
Meanwhile, the long-awaited first true comedy of the summer/year, The Naked Gun, debuted to a solid $17 million. Is it enough for studios to finally invest more in theatrical comedy? “It was a pure comedy. It wasn’t an action comedy, it wasn’t a romantic comedy, it wasn’t dramedy — it was just a comedy,” Richard Rushfield says. “And we haven’t had one of those in a long time.”
Elsewhere in today’s Monday Morning Quarterbacks: What to make of a $22 million opening for The Bad Guys 2; strong expectations for next week’s Freakier Friday; and some kudos for Neon’s Together.
Make sure you’re subscribed to get notified when Monday Morning QBs go live on Mondays, and download the app, where you can also see all of The Ankler’s team posting on Substack’s social feed, Notes.
