Marvel StudiosCaptain America: Brave New World is off to an impressive start at the box office, exceeding expectations after a lukewarm critical response – but its biggest challenge is yet to come.
Last year, the MCU produced another one of the highest-grossing movies of all time with Deadpool & Wolverine, coming off the back of two disastrous flops (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels).
It was a pared-back theatrical slate, allowing audiences time to get excited for the closing stretch of the Multiverse Saga. Well, as our Captain America: Brave New World review explains, it may not redeem your faith in the franchise – but it’s an easy way to have some fun in the cinema.
There’s a lot of eyes on its box office haul; it could be an early forecast of how Thunderbolts* and Fantastic Four perform, for better or worse.
How much has Captain America: Brave New World made at the box office?
As per Variety, Captain America: Brave New World has already grossed $289.4million worldwide, with $141m coming from the US and the rest from international territories.
That’s a big start for a movie with a B- CinemaScore and a 50% Rotten Tomatoes score. However, it also has a verified 80% audience rating.
Its $100m domestic haul accounts for its performance over the four-day Valentine’s Day/Presidents Day weekend, debuting at number one in almost every major market. Its main competition came from Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy in the UK, Ne Zha 2 in China, and Heart Eyes, a Valentine’s horror movie.
As reported by Deadline, its opening is 4% ahead of The Winter Soldier “in like-for-like markets at current rates” (the 2014 film grossed $714m globally by the end of its theatrical run).
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Going into the second week, the box office dropped by 68%, with $28.3 million coming from North America.
Brave New World’s second week drop isn’t unusual
Marvel StudiosMarvel historically has a second-week problem. Its movies are frontloaded by the urgency of people needing to see them as soon as they come out; viewers are desperate to avoid spoilers, and after 17 years, it’s a rite of passage to pile into cinemas on their opening weekends.
However, they don’t always have momentum past their first week. Just look at Spider-Man: No Way Home, one of the biggest films in box office history – and it dropped 69% from its opening weekend sales.
It still fares better than The Marvels, which opened with $46 million in the US and dropped by 78% in its second week.
Marvel StudiosAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is its closet counterpart, given it had a similar CinemaScore (B, so slightly better than Brave New World) and a 46% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
It made $106 million in its opening weekend in the US, before suffering a 69% drop with $32 million in its second week.
If Brave New World’s box office drops by the same amount in North America, it could end up making just $31 million, with perhaps even less internationally.
It only has one big opponent this weekend: The Monkey, the new Stephen King movie from Longlegs director Osgood Perkins. Obviously, that’s not a four-quadrant release – but it will divert attention from Captain America, so it could be an interesting couple of days at the box office.
For more, check out all the Brave New World Easter eggs, the horrifying true story that inspired Captain America’s best character, and when to expect Captain America: Brave New World on Disney Plus.