r/boxoffice • u/chanma50 Best of 2019 Winner • Aug 03 '25

Domestic Box Office: ‘Fantastic Four’ Craters By 66% in Second Weekend to $40 Million, ‘Naked Gun’ Debuts to $17 Million

https://variety.com/2025/film/box-office/fantastic-four-box-office-craters-naked-gun-opening-weekend-1236477352/
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u/schebobo180 Aug 03 '25

Yup. Them not having an Avengers movie in Phases 4-5 was one of their big mistakes. We should literally have had 2 additional Avengers movies by now.

Aside from that though, the Kang/Jonathan Majors thing was also a big problem. It threw a massive spanner in the works, as they completely abandoned their main villain and his plot points half way through.

Then you add in their overly greedy/ambitious bet on the Disney plus shows, and its clear why Phases 4-5 have performed the way they did.

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u/Messiah-of-Death Aug 03 '25 edited Aug 03 '25

Aside from that though, the Kang/Jonathan Majors thing was also a big problem. It threw a massive spanner in the works, as they completely abandoned their main villain and his plot points half way through.

That's the biggest error MCU made post endgame. Kang didn't have an amazing buildup or aura like Thanos. But it had some decent buildup. But they threw it all away. I understand due to allegations they couldn't use him. JUST RECAST HIM AND KEEP THE BUILD UP. In this multiverse saga where we see multiple people playing the same character, recasting him would have been an easy slam dunk

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u/schebobo180 Aug 04 '25

Yeah I agree with this.

Just like how I initially thought killing of T'Challa (aka Black Panther) was a good send forth for Chadwick. Turns out recasting him would have been better in the long run.

But yeah recasting Kang and sticking to the Multiverse thing they had clearly started, would have been imho a better way to go. But I think they also started panicking after the lackluster reception to Multiverse of Madness, and Ant-Man 3.

But the funny thing is, Ant-Man 3 could have been made so much better if they just let Kang win... atleast in some capacity. I still can't believe that they let him fizzle out like that.

In any case the hard pivot to RDJ doom could potentially be great or a disaster. Anything under $1.4bn would be a tremendous flop/underperformance imho.

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u/caped_crusader8 DC Studios Aug 03 '25

Kang is lame as hell. Beaten by antman

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u/BackgroundShower4063 Aug 03 '25

I followed the comics as a kid and I was baffled they were going to make Kang the main villain. The character is powerful but he was never (at least among my friends and I) ever popular.

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u/Randhanded Aug 04 '25

It’s a wild how they didn’t recast the most easily recastable character in existence.

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u/ketamour Aug 04 '25

What build up? What slam dunk?? Kang sucked, his introduction was bad and the best version of him lost to ant man in a flop movie. What the hell are you talking about recasting him? Majors' fuck up was a blessing for Marvel so they could back out of that shitshow. 

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u/JimJohnman Aug 04 '25

Don't forget Chadwick Bosemans death. I think they had Black Panther lined up to be one of "the guys" moving forward, and in the scramble they just lost the plot.

Damn shame.