After a solid opening weekend, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania struggled to keep its streak going with the MCU's second-worst first Thursday ever at the box office.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania proved to be something of a success in its opening weekend, producing the trilogy's biggest box office haul yet with $105 million domestic - topping the $76 million of its predecessor - and $225 million worldwide.
This came amid unfortunate press surrounding the movie, as, despite months of excitement for Kang's big debut, Quantumania was panned by critics and got similar treatment in its audience score.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania's Shaky Box Office
According to @BORReport, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania grossed $3.78 million on its first Thursday at the box office heading into its second weekend, bringing its current domestic total to $135.11 million.
The figure marks one of the worst domestic box office drops in MCU movie history, having accrued the second-lowest first Thursday (the first full Thursday after opening weekend and its Thursday night previews) in the franchise behind only the $3.5 million of Thor: The Dark World.
A list of all of the MCU's first domestic Thursdays that grossed $5 million or less can be seen below:
- Thor: The Dark World - $3.5 million
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - $3.78 million
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - $3.9 million
- Thor - $4 million
- The Incredible Hulk - $4.2 million
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier - $4.6 million
- Ant-Man - $4.7 million
- Black Widow - $5 million
Is Ant-Man 3 Starting to Struggle at the Box Office?
After receiving mixed reactions in their opening weekends, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder dropped by around 68% domestically in their second weekends. With Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania again generating divisive reactions, all signs point to another massive drop.
Ant-Man 3 landing just above Thor: The Dark World in terms of its first Thursday in theaters doesn't seem to bode well for its second weekend. As the threequel took home just $105 million in its opening weekend - compared to Thor 4's $143 million and Doctor Strange 2's $185 million - such a drop would be devastating.
Quantumania has been placed in a similar situation to Multiverse of Madness in that it saw diehard MCU fans rush to theaters for the opening weekend to avoid spoilers for its game-changing twists. But once that fanbase saw the film and the mixed reactions became apparent, Doctor Strange 2 suffered a huge dip.
As Quantumania is the first MCU movie of the Multiverse Saga to have a theatrical run in China at the same time as the rest of the world, the increased worldwide gross may make up for major domestic struggles. After all, Ant-Man and the Wasp did find some success in China with a $121.2 million gross there in 2019.
The bad press and lowered excitement surrounding Ant-Man 3 may have left some holding out for the Disney+ release. If Quantumania does go on to struggle in its second weekend and presumably subsequent weeks, that streaming release might even come sooner than expected.
