Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | August 4, 2025
So, Marvel. Do you want the good news or bad news first? Let’s start out positively. In its second week of release, The Fantastic Four: First Steps stayed in the top spot in its second week of release. But it experienced a far larger drop in gross than expected: a sharp 66%. That brings its domestic gross to over $198.4 million so far. Worldwide, it’s at $368.7 million.
With Marvel and all of these massive blockbusters that now cost $150m+ on average, it makes the numbers game so much bigger. Oh, you’re *only* at $198 million domestically after two weeks? Failure (although that is also more than Thunderbolts/The New Avengers has earned over 14 weeks.) The Fantastic Four reportedly has a $200 million budget so, bare minimum, it’ll need $500 million or so to break even. I think it’ll get there fine. Higher than that? Maybe not to $1 billion. Cue another round of ‘is Marvel over’ discourse. For the record, I don’t think it’ll be over until Kevin Feige is left in a smoking crater or Dr. Doom is arrested for tax evasion. Wait for those new Avengers movies to see if it’s all worth it.
The Bad Guys 2, the sequel to the DreamWorks anthropomorphic crime caper, landed at number two with $22.2 million. That put it ahead of The Naked Gun, which took in $17 million. The latter is an R-rated comedy at a time when such things aren’t getting a lot of major theatrical releases. I feel like these numbers are respectable? Keep in mind that everyone expected it to flop hard. This one could do gangbusters on VOD.
At number six is the body horror Together, which earned over $6.8 million from 2,302 theatres.
The world is dark, and CatVideoFest 2025 is here to lift your spirits. The meow-mix of cinema grossed $460,219 from 199 locations. So much floof.
In limited release news: Architecton, a documentary on architecture over the millennia, built up a gross of $58,495 from 107 theatres; the French drama Souleymane’s Story made $11.532 from two cinemas; and the horror re-release Night of the Juggler slashed to $7,341 from one location.
This coming week sees the release of the horror Weapons and the legacy sequel Freakier Friday.
You can check out the rest of the weekend box office numbers here.
