'Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania' Has A Franchise Record Opening Weekend

Marvel

Feb 20

Kang The Conqueror — Image Source: Wallpapersden.com

The tiny Ant-Man had a huge weekend at the box office. Quantumania, the third installment in the “Ant-Man & the Wasp” franchise, kicked off the long President’s Day Weekend on Friday with $46 million, continued Saturday with $33.8 million, and Sunday with $24.2 million. With another $14 million projected for Monday of the long weekend, Quantumania is expected to bring in between $118 to $120 million in its opening weekend, the third highest for President’s Day Weekend, behind Disney’s Black Panther and Marvel’s Deadpool.

It is the first movie of 2023 to make more than $100 million. “’Ant-Man’ is the first new Hollywood blockbuster out of the gate in 2023,” says IMAX’s CEO Rich Gelfond - $24 million came from IMAX screenings. Quantumania also had openings worldwide; its foreign revenue is $121 million, bringing its total earnings to $225 million.

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Quantumania is the biggest opening of the “Ant-Man and Wasp” series. Its first movie, Ant-Man, made $57 million, and the second, Ant-Man and the Wasp made $76 million in their opening weekends. However, this chapter in the series has gotten the worst reviews of the three movies: audiences gave it a “B” on CinemaScore and only a 49% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

As word-of-mouth gets around, this could impact future ticket sales, but, in the meantime, “…this is excellent business and a big step up for the title,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. Although the Ant-Man franchise does not usually do the business of the other titles in the MCU, Quantumania is kicking off Phase Five in the MCU by introducing Jonathan Major’s character Kang the Conqueror as the next villain after Thanos in the post-Endgame multiverse. According to PostTrak, a quarter of those surveyed said they went to see Quantumania because they wanted to see Kang the Conqueror. With this transition to a new era of Marvel Cinema, and introducing this anticipated villain, IGN says in their review that Quantumania“has just enough heart, humor, and excellent performances to make up for its more underdeveloped aspects."

Avatar: The Way of Water came in at #2 this weekend with $6.4 million, and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was at #3 with $5.3 million.

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