Summary
Captain America: Brave New Worldhas completed its first weekend in cinemas and the box office results are not matching the lukewarm reviews so far…in a good way.Captain America: Brave New World’sdomestic opening, in particular, has outperformed earlier projections.
Long before the film’s Valentine’s Day opening, industry experts never predicted the moviewould match the numbers of its previous direct sequel,Captain America: CivilWar. Instead, Anthony Mackie’s big-screen debut asCaptain America was initially projected to grosscloser to the lower-end estimates of $80 million before post-Super-bowl forecasts pushed that to $86 million. In its first two days of pre-sales, the movie surpassed the ticket sales of previous franchise flops likeThe Marvelsby around 40%, matching the numbers of films likeEternals,Black Widow, andDune: Part Two.
Captain America: Brave New World Opened With $88 MIllion In North America and $92 Million Internationally
It’s Still Below Civil War and The Winter Soldier, Though
According to box office analystLuiz Fernando on X, and confirmed byBox Office Mojo,Captain America: Brave New Worldopened with $88 million across three days in North America. This three-day opening weekend includes $12 million from Thursday previews, $28 million on Friday, and $27.5 million and $21 million respectively during the weekend. Overseas, however, it came slightly below estimates after raking in $92.4 million across five days in more than 53 markets.
For domestic opening reference,Captain America: The First Avengerdid $65.1 million in 2011; the Russo brothers-2014 sequel,Captain America: The Winter Solider, did $95 million; andCaptain America: Civil Warmore than doubled its predecessors’ combined numbers with $179.1 million two years later. Among February releases, it’s the fourth highest ever, bested only byAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s $106.1 million,Deadpool’s $132 million, andBlack Panther’s $202 million.
DespiteCaptain America: Brave New Worldreceiving mixed reviews— currently holding a 50% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a B- on CinemaScore, coupled with unfavorable word-of-mouth — its box office performance has proven surprisingly strong. If Kevin Feige and Disney executives were initially worried about the film’s reception, those concerns may soon be eased. With Monday’s President’s Day holiday still in session, experts already predict the movie’s four-day opening to reach $100 million, which would be the first such in 2025. Its poorer reception overseas, particularly in the Chinese market — the largest overseas market — with just $10.6 million, is concerning.
For now, the quartet of Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, director Julius Onah, and producer Feige can rest easy. With its only major competitor beingPaddington in Peru,Captain America: Brave New World’s second weekend is unlikely to be disastrous. A global opening of $192 million (including Monday figures) against a reported budget of $180 million and a break-even point around $425 million — perDeadline— suggest that the once-scattered stars may have finally begun to align forCaptain America: Brave New World.
