After another lackluster weekend at the box office, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘s theatrical run is almost completely out of gas, and the third installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s tiniest franchise hasn’t even cracked $500 million in ticket sales yet.
Not only does that make it the lowest-earning of the three Ant-Man adventures – a rarity in itself when sequels almost always perform above their predecessors especially in the MCU – but it’s also going to earn the least money of any non-pandemic MCU feature to have released since the end of Phase One over a decade ago, not to mention the fact it’s setting another unwanted benchmark for the status of the franchise’s least commercially successful sequel ever.
We haven’t even mentioned that it’s rated second-bottom among the 31-film back catalogue on Rotten Tomatoes either, and all this is happening despite Quantumania debuting to over $100 million domestically. In fact, according to a new report from Variety, Peyton Reed’s Quantum Realm caper needed to reach $600 million simply to break even, meaning it’s going to limp out of multiplexes facing a substantial loss.
In days gone by, home video and streaming distribution deals would help offset some of those financial chasms, but with the threequel poised to hit Disney Plus sooner rather than later, it’s missing out on another lucrative revenue stream. The Mouse House refused to comment when the outlet inquired about a potential comment on the movie’s dismal performance, which pretty much says it all.
As things stand, Quantumania has just $466 million in the coffers. While that doesn’t sound too bad in isolation, it’s borderline catastrophic for the MCU, especially when the Multiverse Saga has been coming under such sustained fire.
