First Steps’ disappointing box office could be a Doomsday problem for Marvel

Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps took a tumble at the box office in its second weekend, with a headline-grabbing 66% drop for its sophomore showing. That’s become something of a refrain for Marvel in 2025, which saw similarly disappointing theatrical returns for Thunderbolts* (in spite of positive reviews) and a big second-weekend drop on Captain America: Brave New World.

Variety’s reporting on The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ second-week ticket sales called it a cratering, and noted that its week-to-week drop was akin to similar stumbles for past Marvel pariahs Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Thor: Love and Thunder. Deadline was kinder to First Steps’ performance, putting it in the context of other frontloaded superhero films, while noting that DC Studios’ Superman held stronger at the box office.

In spite of the steep drop, the Fantastic Four still managed to score the No. 1 spot on the weekend box office charts, pulling in another $40 million to bring the film’s domestic haul to $198 million, according to Box Office Mojo. First Steps is now at $368 million worldwide, and looks like it will sneak past Marvel Studios’ two other 2025 theatrical releases to land in the top 10 films of 2025.

Incidentally, The Fantastic Four: First Steps had a higher opening weekend than some of Marvel’s foundational hits (Iron Man, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, and others), but it’s the dropoff that has some fans (and probably Disney executives) concerned.

First Steps‘ failure to reignite passion for the Marvel Cinematic Universe may be a worrying sign for other reasons. It may be illustrative not of superhero fatigue in general, but of declining interest in yet another Marvel super-team, or in the Marvel Studios formula, specifically. The studio wanted to have it both ways with Fantastic Four. The movie is positioned as a fresh start, putting Marvel’s first family in its own stand-alone universe, (for now) untethered to 36 previous MCU movies. But it’s also designed to welcome new big cosmic threats to the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse.

Back to back to back disappointments for Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps certainly don’t inspire strong confidence for Avengers: Doomsday, which all three 2025 Marvel Studios films are setting up in varying ways. There’s been some thin narrative connective tissue across this year’s MCU movies, with vague hints of otherworldly threats and dueling Avengers teams forming. But based on box office receipts for Marvel’s 2025 output, the idea that these movies are setting the table for Doomsday hasn’t lit a fire under theatergoers.

Marvel is no doubt hoping that the big paydays going to Robert Downey Jr. and the Russo brothers (coming back for two movies with Avengers in the title) will pay off in the long run. Betting on nostalgia and famous faces certainly worked for Deadpool & Wolverine and Spider-Man: No Way Home, both of which cracked a billion at the box office, but it’s unclear how much longer Marvel can power itself on nostalgia.

For now, Marvel is making big seven-figure bets on known quantities while trying (and mostly struggling) to establish new teams of superheroes. Avengers: Doomsday, with its stacked cast, may ultimately do gangbusters at the box office, and its successor, Avengers: Secret Wars, could help reset the MCU, giving it the fresh restart it needs in 2027. But if audiences aren’t showing up for the multiple movies teeing up two more extremely expensive Avengers films, there might be real cause for concern at the House of Ideas.