The Fantastic Four: First Steps just crushed an MCU box office trend that needed to die for the franchise to continue on. The MCU timeline has seen a range of critical and commercial successes, with the latter category particularly seeing some drastically different results in recent history.

The Marvels‘ box office is one of Marvel’s lowest, but the next year also brought one of the franchise’s biggest successes with ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine‘s $1.3 billion box office. Similarly, while the final figures for The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ box office aren’t yet clear, the 2025 MCU movie has already broken a box office trend with its opening alone.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps Breaks A Major MCU Box Office Trend

The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Opening Is A Considerable One

As per Puck, the recent release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps has already been big for the MCU in one major way, as the film has Marvel’s biggest non-sequel opening since 2019’s Captain Marvel, which made $154 million domestically during this time. This makes sense, as the 2025 MCU movie has had a $118 million domestic opening itself.

This stands to reason, as some of the MCU’s highest openings in recent history have been that of ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine‘s $211 million domestic opening (via Box Office Mojo), Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3‘s $118 million opening, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s $181 million opening. Ultimately, it’s no surprise that sequels tend to net themselves bigger opening successes.

That said, this is a pleasant change to note given 2025’s other MCU movies have had decidedly less strong opening numbers. With Thunderbolts* bringing in $74 million (Box Office Mojo), and Captain America: Brave New World bringing in $88 million, the stage seemed potentially set for the Fantastic Four to have a far lower result, making their actual opening more significant.

However, this does seem somewhat par for the course in some senses. Marvel’s First Family are a staple of the comic world that have been sorely missing in the MCU, and the promise of their much-awaited arrival is naturally something prospective viewers are going to resonate with.

The fact the film is one of the MCU’s main setups for Avengers: Doomsday also further exacerbated this success. With curiosity about how Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom will slot into the MCU at an all-time high, it’s likely this encouraged audiences to visit the story of his rivals, especially since it seemed he was bound to appear himself here.

Why The MCU Box Office Opening Trend Needed To End

The MCU Can’t Rely On Sequels Alone

As it stands, the MCU’s non-sequel movies are unsurprisingly crucial for the franchise. While it’s natural for audiences to generally be more interested in follow-ups to characters they’ve already grown invested in, maintaining interest in new debuts is vital to the franchise’s longevity and in terms of ensuring the franchise can focus on a range of heroes and villains.

In recent history, it has made sense for box office results of non-sequel movies to dwindle. Avengers: Endgame concluded the first major MCU arc in a dazzling way, but also in a way that means the franchise’s next chapter had to prove its own potential, while trying to match up to the heights of what came before.

The MCU has also had to introduce new heroes to bolster the franchise’s roster again – but, with longer between Avengers movies, it’s had to do so while missing much of the connective tissue that helped maintain interest in releases. The Fantastic Four: First Steps appears to reflect a change in things, with Avengers: Doomsday now being more actively built towards.

Ultimately, while the MCU can afford for its debuts to be a little less successful so long as its sequels remain strong, the number of sequels that can do well are ultimately limited if people haven’t been interested in the initial releases. With this in mind, The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ box office results were arguably needed.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Box Office Record Is A Promising Start To Their MCU Story

The Fantastic Four’s Future Looks Good Based On Their Movie Debut’s Initial Results

As the MCU continues on its new path, the success of figures like the Fantastic Four and X-Men are paramount to it being able to pave a successful route ahead. Though The Fantastic Four: First Steps is some way away from ending its box office run, these initial results suggest this path is viable.

In some ways, the most challenging part of establishing new groups in the MCU is ensuring there is interest in their movie debuts, especially when prior releases have fallen flat and challenged overall audience engagement. Indeed, it’s possible to see how interest in the Fantastic Four movie could have simply not been there.

With the prior Fantastic Four movies and their controversial critical reception leaving the team with a legacy of divisive releases, The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ box office could have potentially faltered, especially when 2025’s other MCU releases have prior. Instead, this early result proves audiences are invested in the stories Marvel wants to tell with the group.

While the true tests for the Fantastic Four will come with Avengers: Doomsday and subsequent MCU roles that can’t rely on the novelty of the team appearing as much, The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ early box office results certainly don’t hurt the hopes for the franchise. Hopefully, the film’s box office results will remain strong throughout the team’s theatrical run.