The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now in theaters, and its opening weekend box office numbers are in. The next big stepping stone on the road to Avengers: Doomsdaymade an impressive $218 million during its opening weekend. That very big number doesn’t quite measure up to whatSupermanachieved, though.
According to Box Office Mojo, First Steps generated $218 million worldwide during its opening weekend. That means it has had the most successful first weekend at the box office in theMCUthis year, beating Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts. It couldn’t quite outperform Superman, though.
Fantastic Four and Superman’s opening weekends are pretty much neck and neck
Superman technically won, but it’s about as close as it possibly can be
As Deadline reportedfollowing Superman’s opening weekend a couple of weeks ago,the first movie in James Gunn’s DC reboot made $220 million in its first weekend. So yes, it beat Fantastic Four, but when it comes to numbers this big, that’s the finest of margins. Even if the numbers were identical, though, it would be considered a win forDCwhen you consider how established the MCU has become and how far interest in DC movies has fallen.
This is the start of a new era for the DCU, though, of course - for real this time. James Gunn, the man responsible for a significant chunk of the MCU’s success thanks to hisGuardians of the Galaxytrilogy, is now steering the ship. He has a plan, and that plan starts with Superman.
Superman’s box office numbers have continued to soar like Big Blue himself.It sailed past $500 million this weekend, only the eighth movie to do so in 2025, and it is now the highest-grossing superhero movie of the year after surpassing Captain America: Brave New World. The real test will be if the number Superman ends its run on will be higher than Fantastic Four’s box office gross.
The last time DC’s highest-grossing movie of the year made more at the box office than the highest-grossingMarvelmovie was 2008. That was the year The Dark Knight was the highest-grossing film of the year with more than $1 billion. It was also the year that the MCU began withIron Man’s run ending at $585 million.
DC technically had higher-grossing movies at the global box office in 2020 thanks to Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman 1984. That’s because Marvel didn’t release anything in theaters in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite both Marvel and DC pulling in big numbers via their latest movies, the era of superhero movies dominating the highest-grossing lists at the box office may well be over. A Minecraft Movie ($313 million), Lilo & Stitch ($341.7 million), and Jurassic World Rebirth ($318 million) all had much bigger opening weekends. All movies that have been heavily critiqued for various reasons but have made boatloads of money regardless.
