Ant-Man and the Waspis off to a swell start at the box office, but of course you knew that already. Few things are as predictable as a Marvel Studios movie’s success at the moment, and indeedAnt-Man and the Waspappears to be on track to perform at or above expectations. ThePeyton Reed-directed sequel pulled in $11.5 million from Thursday preview showings, which is nearly double the $6.4 million thatAnt-Manearned on Thursday in 2015. The follow-up is eyeing an opening weekend in the range of $75 million to $85 million, which is a far cry fromAvengers: Infinity War’s opening weekend but right in the pocket of what Marvel and Disney hoped for with this admittedly self-contained and smaller scale superhero pic.
The Thursday night preview numbers are ahead ofDoctor Strange($9.4 million) andWonder Woman($11 million), but Thursday box office is an unreliable indicator of final opening weekend numbers owing to a number of different factors. That said,Ant-Man and the Waspshould handily win the weekend where the only other new release isThe First Purge.
Ant-Man and the Waspis a curious kind of film for Marvel Studios. It’s a sequel, but it’s not exactly on the same level asCaptain America: The Winter SoldierorThor: The Dark World, which opened to $95 million and $85 million respectively.Ant-Manis framed as a much lighter and more flighty franchise, which actually could work in its favor given the bummer ending ofInfinity Warand the overall downer public mood at the moment. It’ll likely fall short of the opening weekend box office of Phase Three sequelsCaptain America: Civil War($179 million),Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2($146 million), andThor: Ragnarok($122 million), but againAnt-Man and the Waspis aiming for a slightly different audience, with a different kind of bar to clear.
This will be the last new Marvel movie in some time, asCaptain Marveldoesn’t open until March 2019 and fans continue to wait with bated breath to find out anything aboutAvengers 4, which hits theaters in May 2019. So considerAnt-Man and the Waspthe cool chaser to the stinging shot ofInfinity War. Here’s hoping it’s good enough to linger for quite some time.
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