The Fantastic Four: First Steps sees a sharp 66% drop in second weekend despite strong debut

The Fantastic Four First Steps sees a steep decline at the box office

Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps opened in the theatres on a strong note, but seems to have started facing a steep downfall at the box office. The latest numbers have proved that the comic book adventure has failed to perform well beyond the film’s core demographic of superhero fans.

The Fantastic Four dropped 66% in its second weekend, grossing $40 million from 4,125 theatres after  $117.6 million opening.

According to Variety, experts had predicted a lesser fall of 55% to 60%. Superman dropped 53% in its sophomore weekend after opening to $125 million the previous week in July. The sharp drop is surprising considering the Marvel tentpole's good reviews, strong word-of-mouth, and little direct competition.

Even holding onto the number one position at the North American box office, The Fantastic Four is now one of the larger second-weekend drops in Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe — less than The Marvels (off 78%) but comparable to Captain America: Brave New World (off 68%), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (off 70%), and Thor: Love and Thunder (off 67%).

Fantastic Four has earned $198 million domestically and $368 million globally so far.
However, Marvel has high expectations with the upcoming three big films, Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) and Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027).

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The Fantastic Four: First Steps features a stellar cast including Vanessa Kirby, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn and Julia Garner. The film revolves around Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing face their most daunting challenge yet as they defend Earth from Galactus and Silver Surfer.

The film is set in a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world and begins four years after Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) were exposed to cosmic rays that gave them extraordinary abilities and powers.