My kids said Fantastic Four: First Steps doesn't look good but if we liked it that much, that they would go. They are casual Marvel fans. They've seen some, but don't feel the need to see them all. Their favorites are our favorites: Guardians of the Galaxy.

I think Marvel purposely placed Fantastic Four up against Superman in hopes it would hurt Superman's box office and possibly kneecap the new DCU. All Marvel/Disney did was hurt both films at the box office. The FF's casting probably cost it a few bucks.

I don't know.. I doubt there were many who actually choose one over the other because of the release date. You can still see both. Maybe for repeated views, I suppose.

Yeah I don’t buy that either. It was a good two week window of exclusivity. If they were really being malicious they would have released it the next week. I think they were giving it a bit of space because I think it’s a very late summer opening and didn’t give it enough time to build up box office. Although with its huge second weekend drop it doesn’t seem like that would be a problem.

This may have been discussed before but forgive because I just noticed this thread up in the pinned section where I always forget is there.

How does A-List and other frequent goer plans factor into ticket sales? Do people here think it affects the total box office greatly nowadays as many believe Xbox's GamePass hurts individual game sales?

I saw a few people mention that AMC marks it as a ticket sold and pays the studio's portion of the proceeds from the money pulled from A-List subscription pool (The goal, after all, is more about the concession sales), so it is still recorded as a regular movie ticket/sale.

If you go in and just watch your movies every week, it's a bit of a money loser for them. If you go in and buy a soda or beer a couple times, or bring someone who does, odds are they'll come out ahead.

Fantastic 4 looking like it will finish just over 500m. Some key takeaways 1) MCU is more frontloaded than any other franchise, you could see that even in the first wknd with the Thurs to Fri to Sat/Sun percentages. 2)The last two movies have done what they needed to - get good reviews and audience scores, but the broader general audience hasn't come back yet. 3)Spider-man 4 will need to do some heavy lifting to build anticipation for Doomsday, but if any movie can do it, that's the one you'd bet on. 4)Way too early prediction, but I think the expectations for Doomsday should be around 1.5B (Age of Ultron numbers) perhaps if it's a home run Secret Wars could have a chance at 2B - that's the more positive outcome imo, things could still turn sideways.

Top 5 WW box office grosses for the summer. Lilo and Stitch is the clear winner. With the shorter windows to PVOD, I don't think the box office will ever go back to the glory days pre-Covid.

X - Formerly Twitter

Solid weekend, great start for Weapons, solid for Freakier Friday (and Lohan's biggest opening to date) Fantastic Four isn't holding well at all.

Unless the movie is called "Avengers" or "Spider-Man" I don't think Marvel is going to ever go back to the days of constant blockbuster hits.

Again, I don't think Fantastic 4 is a complete bust as some of these pundits and write ups claim it is. It's going to finish past $500M WW It's Marvel's top grossing movie of 2025 (also one of the best reviewed) and will almost certainly be profitable in the secondary market with PVOD/digital and physical media sales.

Go look at the top 20 worldwide and their budgets. How many movies this year actually made money?

WB on a historic hot streak. Six $40M+ openings in a row!

Wish the returns for Weapons were known before Zach Cregger signed on to do Resident Evil. Maybe it’s a true passion project of his but if not would rather get to the next thing that is.

I think he really just wants to do Resident Evil

Cool if that’s the case.

Avatar 2, Top Gun Maverick, and Spider-Man No Way Home would like to have a word with you.

It's worse than that though with F4. This was the first really mainstream MCU release in a long time. It (should) have had broad appeal with no baggage of previous MCU outings to deal with. And after coming off of a very well loved Thunderbolts it really should have been a much bigger hit. Sure it will be a modest success but it really doesn't bode well for the future of the MCU in terms of BO success. The message is loud and clear that, like you said, if it doesn't have Avengers of Spider-Man in the title the public doesn't care.

Great hold for Weapons, solid for Freakier.

While F1 is mostly done domestically, it's international legs will carry it past 600m and it will likely end up ahead of Superman at 620-625m. (Supes finishing at around 615m) Took in a second IMAX viewing today, just an incredibly rewatchable film.

Yeah it's good that Apple finally has a movie that made some money in theaters, helps justify them continuing to put them out

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/m...ii-review.html

From a review of NE ZHA II, a Chinese animated film, in today’s New York Times:

“Though this dub, from A24 and CMC Pictures, is only just coming to America, “Ne Zha II” has already been a unique success. Released in China in February, it has become the most successful animated movie and the highest-grossing non-English-language film of all time.”

Statements like these need qualifiers. What they mean to say is “the most successful animated movie in China” and “the highest-grossing non-English-language film of all time, as based on Chinese-supplied figures.”

And by “most successful” they mean highest grossing at the Chinese boxoffice in today’s dollars according to Chinese-supplied figures, which are surely inflated.

Virtually no one outside China has seen this movie. It’s just opened in the U.S. and I’m not sure where else.

I’m sure there are many animated films that have been seen by way more people in China alone than NE ZHA II. Back in 1965, UPROAR IN HEAVEN, an epic tale about the Monkey King, was a huge hit and has surely been seen by many more Chinese people and multiple times, I daresay, thanks to repeat movie screenings and TV broadcasts over the last 60 years. I’m willing to bet that more tickets were bought for it in 1965 than were bought for NE ZHA II in 2025 if accurate boxoffice ticket sales from that era were available. Hell, I bet more Chinese people have seen THE LITTLE MERMAID on pirated tapes since 1989 than have seen NE ZHA II.

This might be one of the greatest day in recent cinema history. A movie everyone can, and probably already has, seen at home tops the box office, despite being a limited release. The theatrical experience is decidedly NOT dead.

So does AMC have a beef with Netflix?
Seems odd to not show it on a few screens...

I’m surprised that AMC sat this one out. Especially with all the hype and positive fan reactions.

I’m seeing it a little later this afternoon. I’ve already seen it, but I want to be around the communal experience of this with an audience.

I made a post about it on TikTok how I plan to see it. Has almost 1,000 views and almost 130 likes. The hype train is pretty real.

One kid has way, way, way too many chores she's been putting off and has to get done, so I didn't even mention it to her. If she learns about it, she'll beg to go even if she has other things has to do. Instead, my wife and I agreed if our youngest wants to go, we'll all go. However, I was surprised she doesn't want to go. She said, I can watch it at home for free and she's heard way too many people singing the songs all summer long at her summer program so she's kinda over it. That means, and I'm surprised to say it, we're skipping this one.

Still haven't seen KPop and don't really care about it specifically (I'll see it eventually just not a high priority) but am very happy to see it's box office performance as someone who wants theater going to be popular.