For the most part, the release of any high-profile blockbuster on digital and on-demand tends to cause at-home audiences to turn on it in an instant, as we’ve seen twice over recently with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way of Water. Fortunately, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania won’t have to deal with renewed backlash, because it wasn’t all that popular to begin with.
It’s amazing just how quickly fans can turn on years of storytelling based entirely on the reception to a single film, but Peyton Reed’s threequel has done a stellar job of torpedoing hype for not just Phase Five, but the entire Multiverse Saga. To be fair, it’s one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s worst-reviewed entries for many very good reasons, and that’s been reflected by a string of unwanted box office accolades now that the film’s theatrical run is all but over.
Despite being the most expensive and heaviest-hyped of the Ant-Man trilogy, Quantumania is also the lowest-grossing after slumping to $474 million globally. In addition, it’s the worst-performing sequel the MCU has ever released into theaters, and if you eliminate the pandemic-era trio of Eternals, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings from the equation, it made less money than any of the franchise’s features to stomp into a healthy marketplace since the end of Phase One.
It’s also one of just a handful of sequels in MCU history to earn less than its predecessor, and it may even be the biggest money-losing misfire of the Marvel Studios era after reports indicated it was nowhere near being profitable in the multiplex, although Kevin Feige will be hoping a robust performance on streaming will eventually plunge it into the black.