First Steps Blew Everyone Away At The Box Office

Traditionally, the Fantastic Four has not fared terribly well on the silver screen. In 1994, the Roger Corman-produced adaptation of the characters was shot and then permanently shelved. In the mid-2000s, a pair of “Fantastic Four” installments hit theaters and, though they weren’t failures, largely earned shrugs from audiences. Then came 2015’s “Fantastic Four” debacle, a film that couldn’t even hit $60 million in North America. Fifth time, it turns out, was the charm, as “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” opened to a superb $118 million in North America. Right on par with “Spider-Man: Homecoming’s” July 2017 domestic launch, “First Steps” doubled the 2015 “Fantastic Four’s” lifetime gross in just its first three days of release.

The fourth-biggest domestic bow of 2025 so far, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is also only the second Marvel Cinematic Universe motion picture (following “Deadpool & Wolverine”) since May 2023’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” to exceed $100 million in its North American debut. Despite the franchise’s rocky box office track record in recent years, this Matt Shakman-helmed reboot is a success. But how on Earth did we get here? How did the Fantastic Four go from flopping in 2015 to hitting a nine-digit opening weekend with glowing reviews just a decade later?

There are several reasons why “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” was such a hit over its first days of release, including its cast and the retro aesthetic emphasized throughout the marketing campaign. These elements, among others, explain why “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” blew everyone away at the box office.

How do you make the fourth 21st-century “Fantastic Four” installment a must-see event? You emphasize everything that it’ll deliver that its predecessors couldn’t. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” arrived in theaters with a marketing campaign and hype machine evoking past comic book movies like “Deadpool” and 2018’s “Venom.” Like the promotional materials for those two late 2010s superhero features, “First Step’s” advertising kept showing off visuals, action beats, or costumes (among other elements) that directly addressed complaints fans had of previous adaptations of these characters. Deadpool would finally snark. Venom would finally have his long tongue — and the Fantastic Four would, finally, be a family.

Constant teases of Galactus’ power, his immense scale, and humanoid form also promised reparations for fans still stinging from the cloudy version introduced in 2007’s “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.” Meanwhile, the constant presence of cosmic material in the trailers and commercials offered something distinctly different from director Tim Story’s “Fantastic Four” installments, films that kept things strictly grounded on Earth.

These details weren’t just important in drawing in comic book geeks. They also reassured general moviegoers, unaware of the Fantastic Four’s comics history, that this wouldn’t be a rehash of Josh Trank’s 2015 directorial effort. There had never been a Fantastic Four movie adaptation with such a vibrant, colorful scheme or a ’60s aesthetic. This was something new, not just the same old, same old. That’s how you make the fourth 21st-century “Fantastic Four” feature lucrative.

It’s curious that Marvel Studios kept releasing motion pictures like “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Thor: Love and Thunder,” and “Black Widow” in early July for so many years, especially given the success it found with launching “Guardians of the Galaxy” over August’s first weekend. Premiering in late July or early August allows s movie to close out the summer and play throughout the season’s final weeks with little or no other blockbuster competition. 2024’s “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which bowed over the last weekend of July, reaffirmed that MCU features dropping late in the summer can be a recipe for box office glory.

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is another shining example of this game plan’s success. Scoring one of the year’s biggest debuts, the cosmic title will reap the benefits of its release date in the weeks ahead. August 2025 is devoid of any other major PG-13 tentpoles. This means “The First Steps” can keep playing and playing as counter-programming to R-rated titles like “Weapons” and “Nobody 2.” Opening in July 2025’s final frame also allowed “First Steps” to attach its trailer to so many blockbusters, like fellow July tentpoles “Jurassic World Rebirth” and “Superman.”

All throughout this season of bustling moviegoing, Matt Shakman’s directorial effort built itself up as summer 2025’s grand finale. That maneuver paid off, judging by its mighty opening weekend gross. Why Marvel Studios would launch a title anywhere else in July at this point is a mystery.

Every single Phase Three Marvel Cinematic Universe feature garnered an A CinemaScore grade except for “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” which got an A-. In the 2010s, this franchise was seen as bulletproof from audiences seeking out big-budget entertainment. But starting with “Eternals” getting a B CinemaScore grade, audiences began to register more consistently mixed responses to Marvel’s supposedly crowd-pleasing entertainment. Since then, several MCU features have garnered grades below an A-, including “Thor: Love and Thunder” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” At the start of 2025, “Captain America: Brave New World” was hit with the worst MCU CinemaScore grade ever: a B-.

“First Steps” didn’t reach the A+ CinemaScore grades of “Black Panther,” “Avengers: Endgame,” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” but it did get a solid A- from audiences. That’s a welcome departure not just from many Phase Four and Five MCU projects, but also previous “Fantastic Four” movies. The two Tim Story-directed “Four” titles each got B grades in the mid-2000s, while 2015’s “Fantastic Four” received a dreadful C-. Clearly, Pedro Pascal and company appeal much more to the broader moviegoing public.

Thanks to that positive word-of-mouth, audiences showed up accordingly, which is how “First Steps” achieved milestones like hitting the second-biggest domestic opening day of 2025. The MCU isn’t quite back to the ceaseless positive word-of-mouth that dominated Phase Three, but “First Steps” is reaping plenty of positive vibes from audiences.

The reveal of the principal actors in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” made it clear that this project was rooted in a retro-’60s aesthetic harkening back to the era in which these superheroes first debuted in the comics. Certain “First Steps” TV spots utilized 1960s songs and a bubbly voice-over announcer, while parodies of old-timey magazine ads were prevalent across social media. These qualities made it clear to everyone around the world that “First Steps” would channel “Down With Love” in its visual aesthetic and not “Quantumania.”

This maneuver didn’t just promise enticing visuals for moviegoers; it also helped “First Steps” separate itself from other summer 2025 titles and previous comic book movies. There was no way anyone would ever confuse this production with “The Marvels” or “Kraven the Hunter” thanks to the emphasis on bright colors and ’60s iconography. Plus, there was a lighter ambiance in these promotional materials that promised audiences a balm for the year’s woes. And the fact that the latest MCU entry is clearly set in an alternate universe meant it could tease out even more escapism than Marvel Studios titles typically provide.

Committing to that unique visual aesthetic made it clear that “First Steps” isn’t quite like any other MCU production, which is why it stood out to people. What other superhero films used parodies of mid-20th-century dating game shows to help spread awareness? Delivering marketing materials that embraced this title’s unorthodox qualities rather than diluting them helped “First Steps” immensely at the box office.

In the 2020s, Pedro Pascal has absolutely exploded as a famous actor. Thanks to his movie star handsomeness, immense versatility, and affable aura, Pascal has blossomed into a full-blown icon. The actor’s been connected to several major hits over the last few years, ranging from “The Last of Us” to “The Wild Robot” to “Gladiator II.” “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” can attest that casting Pedro Pascal in a film isn’t a one-way ticket to instant box office fortune, but he certainly doesn’t hurt your project’s prospects.

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is anchored by him, but Pascal isn’t the only popular actor in the feature’s main cast. Joseph Quinn has taken off as a heartthrob in the years since his revered “Stranger Things” Season 4 role of Eddie Munson, while Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s “The Bear” work turned him into one of that show’s breakout stars. Then there’s awards darling Vanessa Kirby, an Oscar-nominated actor who lends a veneer of prestige to anything she touches.

Separately, none of these four have box office track records that would make Leonardo DiCaprio seethe with envy. Combined, however, they’re a quartet that’s both loaded with talent and deeply relevant to 2020s audience members. The film’s casting can’t be underestimated in terms of how much it helped to propel “First Steps” to its fantastic debut. Marvel’s First Family arrived on the silver screen in 2025 with actors who had all broken out in the third decade of the 21st century.

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” marks the 37th movie based in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At this point, it’s one of the longest-running live-action movie franchises of all time, surpassing the number of James Bond features in existence. Between its dense library of motion pictures and the plethora of Disney+ Marvel shows out there, it’s understandable why so many audience members have found recent MCU properties to be inaccessible. How can projects like “Thunderbolts*” or “Captain America: Brave New World” be remotely coherent unless you’ve dedicated a significant portion of your life to breaking down every piece of MCU minutiae?

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” though, nonchalantly illustrated to viewers in its marketing that there were no greater connections to other MCU shows or movies necessary to enjoy it. Set in its own universe, the film doesn’t play off pre-existing Marvel Studios projects. “First Steps” featured trailers and commercials that enticed moviegoers with standalone charms (like emphasizing the scale of Galactus) rather than constantly hyping up payoffs to MCU plot threads first introduced in 2008.

Plus, there were no details in this project that were intertwined with any Disney+ programs, a welcome departure from 2020s superhero films like “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and “The Marvels,” two films that required extensive knowledge of previously-streamed series to fully understand them. Because of its standalone nature, more people were interested in “First Steps” than just already converted MCU devotees. Not too shabby for the 37th entry in a nearly two-decade-old franchise.