The movie “Captain America: Brave New World” made a splash at the North American box office, raking in $88.5 million in ticket sales over the weekend. The film, released by The Walt Disney Co., is the top opener of 2025, with projections indicating it will reach $100 million in the domestic market and $192.4 million globally by the end of the Presidents’ Day holiday on Monday.
This movie marks Marvel’s first significant release since the success of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which broke records the previous summer and revitalized the Marvel fan base. The film is being shown in 4,105 locations across the U.S. and Canada, and signifies a major shift for the “Captain America” franchise by introducing Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson as the new Captain America, replacing Chris Evans who portrayed the character for nearly a decade. Harrison Ford plays a key role as the U.S. President who transforms into the Red Hulk.
Despite its strong box office performance, “Brave New World” was met with mixed reviews from critics. The film, directed by Julius Onah, currently holds a 51% “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While superhero movies can thrive without critical acclaim, the movie’s ranking places it on the lower end within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For comparison, “Eternals” scored 47%, and “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” received a 46% rating.
In his review for The Associated Press, Mark Kennedy wrote that it is, “a highly processed, empty calorie, regret-later candy of a movie.”
Audiences were more generous in their opinions. The “verified audience score” from Rotten Tomatoes was 80% and its CinemaScore was a B-. Exit polls showed that men made up 63% of the opening weekend audience.
The bar for biggest opening of the year wasn’t terribly high: “Dog Man” held the title for two weeks with its $36 million launch.
And “Brave New World’s” showing is the middle range for an MCU film. Not accounting for inflation, it sits between “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Thor: The Dark World.”
It also cost significantly less than many of the big budget Marvel movies, with a reported production price tag of $180 million, excluding the millions spent on marketing and promotion.
After only one Marvel movie in 2024, “Brave New World” is the first of three major theatrical releases set for 2025, followed by “Thunderbolts(asterisk)” in May and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” in July.
Second place at this week’s box office went to “Paddington in Peru,” the third installment in the beloved franchise, which finally opened in North America this weekend. Released by Sony, it earned an estimated $13 million. The StudioCanal film opened in the United Kingdom in early November 2024 and went into the weekend with $104 million from its international run.
Dougal Wilson took over directing duties for Paul King for this film, which also recast Emily Mortimer as Mrs. Brown, originally played by Sally Hawkins. The other main cast, including Ben Whishaw as Paddinton’s voice, remained intact.
Sony and Screen Gems’ slasher “Heart Eyes” landed in third place with $10 million, up 20% from its opening last weekend. Fourth place went to “Dog Man” with $9.7 million.
This weekend also saw the release of a new “Bridget Jones” movie, subtitled “Mad About the Boy,” which went straight to Universal’s streaming service Peacock, forgoing theaters in the U.S. In the U.K. and Ireland it made an estimated $14.9 million, outgrossing “Captain America: Brave New World.” Universal Pictures International reported $32.3 million in grosses from all 70 territories.
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