EXCLUSIVE: No, silly, superhero movies aren’t dead. The second comic-book movie in the last two weeks, Disney/Marvel Studios‘ The Fantastic Four: First Steps is conquering around $23 million in previews tonight that began at 2PM. Domestic outlook was $100M-$110M, but the Matt Shakman-directed movie is bound to shoot higher. The numbers are from sources, not Disney.
Those are the best previews for an MCU title year to date, double that of Thunderbolts* ($11.5M, $31.8M Friday, $74.3M opening) and +92% higher than Captain America: Brave New World ($12M, $40.9M Friday, $88.8M 3-day). Current RT critic score is 88% and audience is 92% for the 1960s futuristic theme movie, which are very close to the respective figures of Thunderbolts* (88%/93%) and critically higher than Deadpool & Wolverine (78%) and about the same with that R-rated MCU title’s audience rating (94%).
Fantastic Four‘s Thursday is also the 12th time that an MCU movie has posted previews north of $20M+ (2019’s Avengers: Endgame still owns the all-time domestic preview record with $60M).
Tonight’s figure is very similar to the $22.5M previews which James Gunn’s Superman did two Thursdays ago (granted that figure included an extra $2.8M in Amazon Prime member advance screenings). For those with short memories, Superman went on to do a $56.1M Friday (of which previews repped 40%) and an opening of $125M off an A- CinemaScore, 84% Rotten Tomatoes critics score and 92% audience rating.
Social media analytics firm RelishMix reports that Fantastic Four is the first movie of the year to break the billion mark in regards to social media reach across TikTok, Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube, ahead of Jurassic World Rebirth (921M) and Superman (953M). Other movies with a billion followers on social media include 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home (1.2 billion) and last summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine (1.15 billion).
RelishMix says “this cast is fully social and nearly completely activated, especially after the world premiere red carpet, including Pedro Pascal at 11.4M, Joseph Quinn at 5.6M, Vanessa Kirby at 2.6M and Julia Garner at 1.5M.”
The analytics org reports, “Convo on The Fantastic Four: First Steps is running positive as fans are interested in Marvel delving into the ‘60s retro-futurist setting and the promise of a new chapter for the comics universe. Comments include, ‘Setting it in the ’60s was a good idea. This looks better than the previous Fantastic Four movies.’ and ‘This is maybe the first Marvel film I’m genuine excited for — can’t wait to see it.’ The individuality of the film is alluring to many: ‘So excited to get a new Marvel film where I haven’t had to watch hours of existing movies/shows as a prerequisite for watching!’ The film’s villain, Galactus, is a cool element for many: ‘Galactus is Coming this movie is about to be Fantastic!’ and, ‘The shadow of that helmet — chills.’”