‘Quantumania’ might be the biggest Hollywood hit of the year, but Marvel is still getting crushed by a rival studio

Nine times out of 10, when it comes to naming the most successful film studio or production company in any given year, either Disney or one of its subsidiaries will be the inarguable answer, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s recent woes have opened the doors for an unassuming rival to swoop in and lay claim to the 2023 crown. So far, at least.

While Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania may have fallen off a cliff at the box office after suffering not just the franchise’s biggest second-weekend drop ever but one of the heftiest the superhero genre in its entirety has ever seen, it’s still earned $363 million globally in the space of 10 days to rank as Hollywood’s biggest hit of the year by a country mile.

Chinese blockbusters Full River Red and The Wandering Earth 2 may be leading the pack on a worldwide basis, but on home soil, Universal has quietly been stealing the thunder away from Kevin Feige’s outfit without anyone really sitting up and paying attention, which has continued this weekend after Cocaine Bear rode wave of online buzz to a much better than expected debut.

The studio has only released three features so far this year, but they’ve all been unqualified smash hits. Prior to Elizabeth Banks’ unhinged horror comedy, both the viral sensation M3GAN and M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin opened at number one, performed well above projections, and scored strong reviews from critics to wind up rated Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Even more impressively, Shyamalan’s literary adaptation is the only one of the trio that isn’t an original concept, and when you combine the production costs of all three, it comes to less than a third of Quantumania‘s estimated $200 million price tag.