‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Records Biggest Second-Weekend Box Office Drop in MCU History

“Fantastic Four: First Steps” is still number one at the box office in its second weekend, but the movie is facing some serious trouble. It dropped a huge 80% in ticket sales compared to its opening weekend, which is the biggest second-weekend drop in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far.

On its second Friday, the film earned $11.7 million in the U.S., according to box office reports. This steep fall means it probably won’t hit the earlier weekend two predictions of $45 to $52 million by the end of Sunday. So far, the movie has made $170 million domestically and might reach around $198 million by the weekend’s close.

However, Marvel spent over $200 million to make the film, so it still needs to pull in more money to cover its costs.

The movie stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn as the new superhero team. It was expected to be Marvel’s first big hit after the pandemic, especially after some recent misses like Thunderbolts* earlier this year, The Marvels in 2023, and Eternals in 2021. But it looks like the film is mostly attracting die-hard comic book fans, not a bigger crowd.

With this 80% drop, “Fantastic Four: First Steps” now holds an unwanted record for the MCU. The previous worst second-weekend drops were The Marvels at 78% and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania at 70%. Even Captain America’s 68% decline seems mild compared to this.

As of August 1, 2025, the movie has made $170.1 million in the U.S. and Canada and $99.1 million in other countries, bringing its worldwide total to $269.2 million.

Reviews have been mostly positive. On Rotten Tomatoes, 86% of 360 critics liked the movie. The site’s critics summary said, “Benefitting from rock-solid cast chemistry and clad in appealingly retro 1960s design, this crack at The Fantastic Four does Marvel’s First Family justice.” On Metacritic, the film has a score of 65 out of 100, which means “generally favorable” reviews. Audience members polled by CinemaScore gave it an A−, showing that fans who saw the movie generally enjoyed it.

Even with good reviews and a strong cast, the big drop in ticket sales shows that Marvel still faces challenges getting wider audiences excited about new superhero teams.

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