“Captain America: Brave New World” gave a significant boost to the North American box office, grossing $88.5 million in ticket sales over the weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday. This makes it the biggest opening of 2025, with Disney predicting it will reach $100 million domestically and $192.4 million globally by the end of Monday’s Presidents’ Day holiday.
This marks Marvel’s first major release since “Deadpool & Wolverine” set records last summer, reigniting interest among Marvel fans who had been concerned about the declining reception of “The Marvels.”
Showing in 4,105 theaters across the U.S. and Canada, “Brave New World” also represents a significant shift for the “Captain America” franchise. The film officially introduces Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson as the new Captain America, succeeding Chris Evans, who portrayed the character for nearly a decade. Harrison Ford also stars as the U.S. President, who transforms into the Red Hulk.
“Brave New World,” directed by Julius Onah, faced a bit of a challenge going into its opening weekend due to poor reviews. However, superhero films have often been able to succeed despite criticism from critics. The movie currently holds a 51% “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While it’s not the worst-rated film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — “Eternals” has a 47% rating and “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” sits at 46% — the latest release is definitely among the lower ratings in the franchise.
In his review, Mark Kennedy described the film as “a highly processed, empty calorie, regret-later candy of a movie.”
However, audiences were more positive in their reactions. The “verified audience score” on Rotten Tomatoes was 80%, and it received a B- on CinemaScore. Exit polls revealed that 63% of the opening weekend audience were men.
The bar for the biggest opening of the year wasn’t particularly high, as “Dog Man” held the title for two weeks with its $36 million debut.
“Brave New World” performed in the middle range for an MCU film, ranking between “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Thor: The Dark World” in terms of its opening. It had a production budget of $180 million, significantly lower than many other big-budget Marvel movies, though this figure doesn’t include the additional cost for marketing and promotion.
After only one Marvel movie in 2024, “Brave New World” is the first of three major theatrical releases scheduled for 2025. It will be followed by “Thunderbolts” in May and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” in July.
Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for Comscore, noted that while the superhero genre has struggled in recent years, audiences still have strong interest in seeing these films in theaters.
In second place at the box office this weekend was “Paddington in Peru,” the third film in the beloved franchise, which opened in North America this weekend. Released by Sony, it earned an estimated $13 million and is expected to reach $16 million by Monday. The film had already earned $104 million internationally, having debuted in the UK in early November 2024.
Dougal Wilson took over as director for Paul King in the latest film, which also saw Emily Mortimer recast as Mrs. Brown, a role originally played by Sally Hawkins. The rest of the main cast, including Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington, remained the same.
Sony and Screen Gems’ slasher film Heart Eyes secured third place with $10 million, showing a 20% increase from its debut the previous weekend. Dog Man earned fourth place with $9.7 million.
The Chinese blockbuster Ne Zha 2 completed the top five, grossing $7.2 million from 660 screens in North America. Overall, the box office is up 20% compared to last year.
A new Bridget Jones movie, titled Mad About the Boy, was released directly to Universal’s streaming service, Peacock, in the U.S., bypassing theaters. In the U.K. and Ireland, it earned an estimated $14.9 million, surpassing Captain America: Brave New World. Universal Pictures International reported a total of $32.3 million from all 70 territories.