Ant-Man opens big at box office with $104M for ‘Quantumania’
Phase five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe may have gotten off to a rocky start, but Ant-Man is bigger than ever at the box office.
"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" opened with $104 million in domestic ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday, easily surpassing the box-office debuts of the previous two Ant-Man films. The Walt Disney Co.'s "Quantumania" added another $121.3 million overseas to give the pint-sized hero a $225 million global launch.
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It's easily the largest opening of the year so far. And "Quantumania" did so despite an atypically poor reception for the 31st MCU film. "Quantumania," starring Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Evangeline Lilly as the Wasp and Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror, sits at 48% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the only MCU film to rank as rotten beside "Eternals" (47%).
Audiences also weren't thrilled with "Quantumania," giving it a "B" CinemaScore. "Eternals" is the only other MCU film to receive a CinemaScore that low.
Those scores will pose the biggest concern for Marvel as it continues to unroll phase five of the MCU, following mixed reviews for the post-"Avengers: Endgame" phase four of the comic-book franchise. Up next is "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" in May.
In its 10th weekend of release, James Cameron's "Avatar: The Way of Water" remained in second place with $6.4 million. With $2.243 billion globally, Cameron's sci-fi sequel has now just surpassed Cameron's own "Titanic" — currently back in theaters for its 25th anniversary — as the third-highest grossing film ever. Now, only the 2009 "Avatar" and "Avengers: Endgame" rank above "The Way of Water."
Last week's top film, "Magic Mike's Last Dance" slid to third place with $5.5 million. The Channing Tatum sequel has collected $18.1 million in two weeks.
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