It may not have been intentional, but James Gunn has nonetheless hammered another nail into the coffin of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – which was already six feet deep and them some to begin with – after celebrating the ongoing box office success being enjoyed by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
There was no chance the third and final outing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s premiere intergalactic dysfunctional family was going to bomb, but the comic book blockbuster’s impressive run has only made Quantumania look worse by comparison. Peyton Reed’s threequel limped out of theaters with $475 million to end up as the lowest-grossing Ant-Man yet, whereas Gunn’s fond farewell to the superhero franchise is going to blitz past that total in less than 10 days.
Although it would be unfair to suggest it was a deliberate dig at his immediate MCU predecessor, it should still be noted that the tweet Gunn used to tout the commercial excellence of Vol. 3 made a point of explicitly mentioning that the cosmic caper has already blown Quantumania out of the water.
Would it be fair to call Paul Rudd’s third solo adventure the MCU’s biggest-ever failure? Probably. It’s one of the saga’s worst-reviewed films ever, Marvel Studios’ lowest-grossing sequel of any kind, and one of its weakest box office earners since the end of Phase One, without even mentioning the Jonathan Majors controversy that threatens to cast an unshakeable shadow over its entire existence should the actor be formally charged with any crimes and subsequently booted out as Kang the Conqueror.
