By Marvel Studios is poised to score a major win this calendar year with The Fantastic Four: First Steps, chalking up an estimated global debut north of $190–$210 million for its opening frame, according to Deadline. Revenue that big may just trail James Gunn’s Superman, which bowed to $217 million. Still, even on the conservative side, this weekend haul will already top the final theatrical tally of the last big-screen attempt to launch the Fantastic Four.
The 2015 take on Fantastic Four—meme-dubbed Fant4stic thanks to its eye-rolling stylized logo—crawled to just $167,882,881 globally against a reported $120 million production budget before a single marketing dollar was spent, per Box Office Mojo. Crater-era-level numbers aside, the picture also belly-flopped with critics and ticket-buyers, lingering at 9 % fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and sporting an audience score of only 18 %.
That 2015 gamble has gone down as one of the genre’s most colossal blunders, swapping the quartet’s trademark hopeful, family-centric sci-fi spirit for a brooding, edge-lord makeover that left all four leads moping about having superpowers. Speaking as a lifelong FF devotee, every memory of that flick still feels like licking a nine-volt battery.
In sharp contrast, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is riding a swell of buzz and, beyond demolishing its predecessor’s lifetime gross, is pacing to exceed the openers for both Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*—the other two MCU instalments in 2025.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps touches down in cinemas July 25, launching Marvel Phase 6. For deeper dives, see our roundups of forthcoming Marvel films and series, plus a guide on how to watch the MCU titles in chronological order.