While it may be waning at the box office, The Fantastic Four: First Steps has already outsold an infamous DC Extended Universe movie. Led by Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm), Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm), and Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm), First Steps introduced a new version of The Fantastic Four into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

First Steps has stumbled at the box office, suffering a 60% drop this weekend on top of last week’s 66% drop. With sharply declining returns, it does not have anywhere close to the legs that Marvel has traditionally expected from each release. While it has stumbled, its opening weekend helped to usher in an immense $117.6 million domestic take.

Thanks to that opening, First Steps has surpᴀssed DC’s Justice League (2017) in its third weekend, according to a report by The Numbers. The latest MCU movie has reportedly earned $230 million domestically, while Justice League brought in $229 million in its entire run. Despite concerns that First Steps was overly front-loaded, it has already surpᴀssed a mᴀssive team-up release.

What This Milestone Means For Fantastic Four: First Steps

Justice League was ridiculed when it was first released, earning a 39% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 67% Popcornmeter score. The movie failed to have the commercial impact of any of Marvel’s Avengers movies, despite the DC Extended Universe’s desperate hopes to match the MCU’s success.

In all likelihood, Marvel was not hoping to compete with Justice League when it first began developing Fantastic Four: First Steps. Instead, the movie debuted after several box office disappointments from the studio, including The Marvels (2023), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), and Captain America: Brave New World (2025).

Marvel has still seen some successes in recent years, including Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) and ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine (2024), but even Guardians stumbled compared to previous releases. The post-pandemic landscape has been relatively dismal for Marvel, and the studio is simply hoping to rebuild its reputation after its recent failures.

Our Take On Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Milestone

Justice League was near-universally reviled among critics, and it was so poorly received that audiences began campaigning for a cut from the original director, Zack Snyder. If Marvel was hoping to rebuild its reputation, it should not be hoping to compete with Justice League at all. Yet, this statistic still represents a positive shift for the studio.

First Steps out-earned Thunderbolts*, Brave New World, The Marvels, Eternals, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania domestically. It also received critical and audience acclaim, earning an 86% Tomatometer score and a 91% Popcornmeter score. While its box office is still shaky, these are good movements for a struggling MCU.

If the MCU is to recover before Avengers: Doomsday‘s release, it needs to do so slowly. Every positively received release will help to rebuild the studio’s reputation, which will make the next Avengers movie more acceptable for viewers. The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ milestone is not necessarily a game-changer, but it is a good sign for Marvel Studios.