The Fantastic Four: First Steps just finished its second weekend in theaters, and it has now officially surpassed the DC Extended Universe’s most shocking flop in total box office revenue. According to Box Office Mojo, First Steps now boasts a total lifetime gross of over $230.4 million, while Justice League (2017) is still standing at $229 million. That’s an important hurdle in the superher genre, as no movie wants to repeat the failures of Justice League or the DCEU movies that preceded it. Still, First Steps comes in far below some other movies that it should be competitive with. Hopefully the Marvel Cinematic Universe is setting the stage for some big hits in the next two years.
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Justice League is a natural benchmark for superhero adaptations to use, as it was a high-stakes failure that many fans found predictable. Of course, there are some notable issues with comparing it to First Steps, which was made with a slightly lower budget and was released after the COVID-19 pandemic, when the theater industry has some very different expectations in general. At the same time, the Fantastic Four could still stay in theaters for weeks or even months, pulling further ahead while Justice League‘s earning potential has mostly fizzled out.
It’s harder to account for fans’ excitement to bring these particular characters and stories to the screen at these particular times. Back in 2017, fans were eager to see a DC Comics film franchise to rival the MCU, but many felt that the Justice League team-up was too soon, and was not earned in the narrative. However, this version of the Fantastic Four didn’t feel quite like an organic addition to the world either — this movie is set in an alternate reality, with no other characters we’ve seen before in the MCU. It’s a set-up for a crossover that will happen later, but it’s not the kind of payoff that usually brings the most success for this genre.
The climactic payoffs populate the top of this lifetime gross list — Avengers: Endgame is at number two with nearly $858.4 million, followed by Spider-Man: No Way Home with nearly $815 million. Avengers: Infinity War sits at number eight on the list, and other top-performing titles show the importance of a major series build-up — Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens is number one by a longshot with over $936.6 million. By comparison, First Steps is number 186 on the list, followed by Justice League at 188.
The MCU’s next few movies are the ones that should really compete in that echelon — Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars will be the conclusion of the Multiverse Saga, and roughly analogous to Infinity War and Endgame. However, fans and critics have questioned whether they will match the impact of Infinity Saga finale for several years now. As for the new DC Universe, it has no major Justice League crossover titles in sight, indicating that it will wait until it has earned that kind of hype this time around. First Steps is still in theaters now, as is the DCU’s Superman.
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Image courtesy of Prokino Filmverleih
