Marvel’s latest offering, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, had a triumphant first day at the US box office: the second biggest opening of this calendar year.
The film made $57m (£47m) from combined preview screenings and showings across 4,125 cinemas on Friday (25 July), according to Variety.
That figure puts First Steps just behind A Minecraft Movie, which had the biggest opening day of the year in the US box office with $57.11m in April, and just ahead of Marvel Studios‘ comic book banner rival, DC Studios’ Superman, which made $56.1m on its opening day on 11 July.
The opening marks the best first day for a Marvel Cinematic Universe release since Deadpool & Wolverine dominated the box office 12 months ago, which made $205m (£160m) at the domestic box office in its opening weekend. But it will be a close call on whether First Steps can outpace Superman’s $125m (£93m) three-day opening earlier this month.
First Steps is still Marvel’s best opening day of the year, with its recent releases not being as lucrative. February’s Captain America: Brave New World grossed around $88m (£65m) during its opening weekend, while May’s Thunderbolts* brought in around $74m (£55m).
The original Fantastic Four comic books follow a group of scientists who develop superhuman abilities after being exposed to a mysterious cosmic storm.
The new Marvel film stars Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic, The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, and Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch.
It follows the quartet as they battle world-devouring Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his cosmic herald, the Silver Surfer.
The film has opened to mostly positive early reactions from fans and critics. In The Independent’s three-star review, Clarisse Loughrey said that while the set designs are a “space-age dream”, the film “jerks around” far more than it needs to with dialogue disintegrating too often into “unfunny banter”.
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“There’s an oddly binary attitude here, where we can do plot or character, but never both at the same time,” Loughrey writes.
“It’s ironic that Ben’s so reluctant to deploy his catchphrase, ‘it’s clobberin’ time’, considering everything else he’s saying is basically ‘Marvel Quip 101.’”
