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Having overtaken Captain America: The First Avenger both domestically and worldwide last week, the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: Brave New World, overtook another box office under-performer this weekend as it limped towards a massive global box office milestone. The superhero movie, which marks star Anthony Mackie’s first theatrical appearance as the titular character, opened with $100 million domestically over its extended domestic debut. But it has since struggled to stay afloat, despite next-to-nil competition. It was thought that last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine would breathe new life into the struggling MCU, but it’s clear that audiences are more selective now, more than ever.
With $185 million domestically, Brave New World has now overtaken the lifetime domestic haul of Black Widow. It’s worth noting that Black Widow was released during the pandemic, simultaneously on the Disney+ streaming service for a premium access fee. Considering these hurdles, it’s actually quite remarkable that the movie did as well as it did. Starring Scarlett Johansson, Black Widow made $380 million worldwide, a figure that Brave New World surpassed this week. With around $203 million from overseas markets, the film’s global haul stands at $388 million.
It’ll next target the $403 million lifetime haul of Eternals, another movie whose theatrical run was hobbled by the pandemic’s fallout. Unlike Eternals and Black Widow — not to mention fellow MCU bombs Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels — Brave New World didn’t cost over $200 million to produce. The movie did, however, earn poor reviews. It currently sits at a “rotten” 48% approval rating on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, which puts it just one point above Quantumania’s franchise-low score of 47%.
Mackie Made His MCU Debut Over a Decade Ago
Directed by Julius Onah, Brave New World opened amid controversy surrounding reported re-shoots. While it’s no longer the lowest-grossing film in the Captain America series, it has virtually no chance of touching Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s $700 million-plus domestic haul. Captain America: Civil War, on the other hand, grossed over $1 billion worldwide. But that movie was largely seen as an Avengers offshoot, and not necessarily a Captain America adventure. Mackie has spent over a decade as a cast member in the MCU, and he inherited the mantle of Captain America from Chris Evans in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Brave New World also features Harrison Ford and Giancarlo Esposito. You can watch the film in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
