Box Office Report for the Week of February 19th

To the surprise of absolutely no one, an Marvel Cinematic Universe movie is the number one of the weekend, regardless of negative reviews. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is currently tied with Eternals as the lowest-rated movie in MCU history. But as I’ve previously said in these entries, it doesn’t necessarily matter, because the MCU is critic-proof. Some have said that this signals “the end of superhero movies,” but that’s complete nonsense. There have been superhero duds at the box office over the past couple of years (Morbius and Black Adam are the biggest examples), but Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is already on track to become the highest-grossing Ant-Man film.

The movie has already accumulated $104 million domestically, and $225.3 million worldwide. For reference, Ant-Man and the Wasp only snagged $87 million domestically on opening weekend, and 2015‘s Ant-Man made $58 million domestically. So for anyone thinking that this is “the end of superhero movies” by looking at the mixed reviews and low Rotten Tomatoes score, the film has already made more money on opening weekend than the previous two Ant-Man films. Does that mean that the MCU should become complacent? Absolutely not. I thought the film was fine, but it definitely showed the cracks in its storytelling and proves that it absolutely needs to not only reinvent itself and make better-looking films and television series.

Kevin Feige‘s comments on the MCU slowing down for Phase Five and Six (a few months after Bob Iger comes back as Disney CEO is no coincidence) is good news for anyone who wanted the MCU to start feeling special again. Here’s hoping that the next two phases, which will heavily involve Jonathan Majors‘ Kang the Conqueror, will take fan criticisms to the heart, both on the film and television front. But regardless of that, you can’t deny that these movies continue to make massive amounts of money and are currently keeping cinemas afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As for other movies which have been released in theatres this week, Marlowe did not perform well. The film bombed at the box office, opening in eighth place with a very poor $1.9 million tally. The film was poised to be Liam Neeson‘s comeback to the screen, with filmmaker Neil Jordan, whom he previously contributed with on Michael Collins. Still, negative reviews ensured that the film wouldn’t perform at all. Not every movie is critic-proof.

Here’s the full list of the top ten films of the week:

1. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Disney): $104M – 4,345 theatres
2. Avatar: The Way of Water (Disney): $6.1M (-15.2%) – 2,675 theatres
3. Magic Mike’s Last Dance (Warner Bros): $5.4M (-35%) – 3,034 theatres
4. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Universal): $5.2M (-5.7%) – 3,012 theatres
5. Knock at the Cabin (Universal): $3.9M (-28.1%) – 2,601 theatres
6. 80 for Brady (Paramount): $3.6M (-37.9%) – 3,119 theatres
7. Titanic: 25th Anniversary (Paramount): $2.2M (-65.9%) – 2,132 theatres
8. Marlowe (Open Road Films): $1.9M – 2,281 theatres
9. Missing (Sony): $1.7M (-32.4%) – 1,516 theatres
10. A Man Called Otto (Sony): $1.5M (-40.2%) – 1,725 theatres

Source: Box Office Mojo