Paul Rudd‘s still king of the (ant) hill in movies — beating out a coked-out CGI bear … but the weekend win isn’t quite what it seems, considering a huge drop-off his flick endured.
We’re talking about “Ant-Man: Quantumania” — which came out last week with windfall box office numbers ($106 million) and which once again secured the top spot these past 3 days with another $32.2 million in domestic ticket sales against newcomer, “Cocaine Bear.”
The goofy horror-comedy, directed by Elizabeth Banks, came in 2nd behind PR and co. … raking in $23.1 mil domestically and $28.4 mil globally — which is pretty good considering it only cost about $35M to make it. So, it’s sure to make its money back and then some.
Not exactly the hit that “M3GAN” was for Universal — but the studio’s killing it lately with original ideas and relatively low investment. ‘Ant-Man,’ however, took a historical plunge.
Going from $106M to $32M in just one weekend is actually the biggest dip a Marvel movie has fallen into … like, ever. As Variety noted, that’s about 69%, more or less … beating out the previous lowest record-holder in “Black Widow,” which came in at a 67% drop-off in ’21.
So, what are we to make of all this??? Well, from the outside looking in … it seems Marvel might not quite be the bankable movie draw it was once (especially post-‘Avengers’), and unique concepts in Hollywood can actually be winners with audiences. Take note, execs!