Ant-Man 3 opening box office breaks all franchise records, but is it good enough?

MCU’s latest outing, Ant-Man 3 is out and it has already created new records on its opening weekend. So far, the Ant-Man franchise has had the least profitability, and there has been a sense among fans that the previous two Ant-Man movies have only felt like nice little breathers between major crossover events.

But ever since Loki introduced He Who Remains, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania became one of the most exciting projects with the inclusion of Kang the Conqueror. The inclusion of Jonathan Majors has given the Ant-Man movies the solid footing that the franchise needed as it has already gone past $200 million worldwide after its opening weekend.

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Ant-Man 3’s box office report

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Poster (Image via Marvel)

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has opened with a massive $104 million in North America, and $225 million worldwide (per Box Office Mojo). This may be a low number compared to the last four MCU movie openings, but it’s an all-time high for the Ant-Man franchise. 2015’s Ant-Man made $57 million from its domestic opening weekend and Ant-Man and the Wasp brought in $75 million.

Now after counting the Four Day weekend including Presidents’ Day numbers, Quantumania had a $118 million four-day weekend, and currently stands on $357 million.

The film has been one of the lucky ones as it got a China release as well. But the numbers in the Asian Territory were disappointing as Quantumania only drew $19.2 million from there.

Ant-Man and Wasp in Ant-Man 3 (Image Credit: Marvel Studios)

The projections for Ant-Man 3 were reported to be much higher as the film was looking at a $120 million domestic opening and a global overhaul of $280 million. But the drop in its numbers could be due to the fact that Quantumania has tied with Eternals for having a 47% rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes.

After enduring the damage through critics, Quantumania also got a CinemaScore of “B”. This is the lowest Audience Score ever for any MCU outing. So, even though Kang is holding the movie together, the future weekends of Ant-Man 3 are in trouble.

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How much will Quantumania make?

Ant-Man and Kang in Quantumania (Image via Marvel)

Ant-Man 3’s total box office numbers will depend a lot on how much the movie ends up making on its second weekend. If it still holds strong for a 50% or less drop in its domestic weekend numbers, then there’s still hope for the film.

But with the bad word-of-mouth coming from both critics and the audience, many people might wait to watch Quantumania on Disney+. So, chances are that the second weekend’s numbers would drop even below 50%.

Scott Lang in Ant-Man 3 (Image via Marvel)

On top of that, Ant-Man 3 will only get to retain its highly profitable premium screens for just one weekend because of the massive incoming competition from March.

Starting with Creed III, March is releasing movies like Scream 6, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, John Wick Chapter 4, Dungeons & Dragons, and 65. So that would cause Quantumania to lose a lot of its potential viewers.

The first Ant-Man made $519 million in total and its sequel crossed $622 million. So, it’s safe to believe that Quantumania will go beyond Ant-Man and the Wasp.

But considering the upcoming competition, it might only end up making somewhere between $630 million to around $700 million. And that’s quite middling for an MCU threequel.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is currently playing in theaters worldwide.