Movies
‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ off to strong start at the box office
‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ is expected to bring in close to $100 million domestically over its opening weekend.
Marvel Studios’ latest movie, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, has finally hit theatres worldwide, and the film is off to a strong at the box office.
The movie kicks off Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Paul Rudd reprising his role as Ant-Man. Evangeline Lilly is also back as The Wasp, while Jonathan Majors joins the cast as Kang the Conqueror.
‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ at the box office
Variety are reporting ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ earned a solid $17.5 million at the domestic box office thanks to preview showings.
Add $23.8 million from over 40 overseas markets, in places like Mexico, South Korea, Germany, Brazil and Australia, across Wednesday and Thursday, and the film has already tallied an impressive $41.3 million globally.
That figure doesn’t include numbers from China, which started showing the movie at midnight on Thursday.
‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ is expected to bring in between $95 million to $100 million domestically from its opening weekend, and that figure could grow further with the Presidents’ Day holiday on Monday.
That means the movie is on pace for the franchise’s biggest opening. ‘Ant-Man’ made $57 million domestically when it debuted back in 2015, while the 2018 sequel ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ made $76 million after its premiere.
Despite its strong showing, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ won’t match previous Marvel openings like ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ and ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’, which opened by earning $185 million and $144 million respectively.
‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ isn’t a hit with critics
Despite the film’s success at the box office, critics aren’t sold on it.
After 243 reviews, the film has a 48 percent rating amongst critics on Rotten Tomatoes. That makes it just the second Marvel movie to have a ‘rotten’ rating (below 60 percent), with the first being ‘Eternals’ in 2021, which received a 47 percent rating.
The number is considerably lower than previous Ant-Man movies - the first receiving a 83 percent rating and the sequel getting 87 percent.
While critics aren’t loving the latest Marvel movie, the same can’t be said for fans. The film has an audience score of 84 percent after over 1,000 verified ratings.