Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicked off with “Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania.” Released on February 17, 2023, the film opened with negative reviews. The third installment in the Ant-Man franchise received the second lowest critical score for a MCU film on Rotten Tomatoes. As of writing this article, the film is having a 48% score from 355 reviews, which is just slightly ahead of “Eternals” (47%).
Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania
“Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania” had received the lowest audience score for a MCU film. It received just ‘B’ on Cinemascore, equaling “Eternals.” Despite such negative reception, “Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania” exceeded the industry projection of $95 Million domestic opening weekend, and ended up collecting $106 Million. It is the 18th MCU film to open with more than $100 Million at the domestic box office. It got the highest opening in the Ant-Man franchise.
| Ant-Man films | Domestic opening weekend |
| Ant-Man | $57 Million |
| Ant-Man and the Wasp | $76 Million |
| Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania | $106 Million |
There are now 31 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and “Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania” now has the 17th highest MCU domestic opening.
| Rank | MCU film | Domestic opening weekend |
| 1 | Avengers Endgame | $357.1 Million |
| 2 | Spider-Man No Way Home | $260.1 Million |
| 3 | Avengers Infinity War | $257.6 Million |
| 4 | The Avengers | $207.4 Million |
| 5 | Black Panther | $202 Million |
| 6 | Avengers: Age of Ultron | $191.2 Million |
| 7 | Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | $187.4 Million |
| 8 | Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | $181.3 Million |
| 9 | Captain America: Civil War | $179.1 Million |
| 10 | Iron Man 3 | $174.1 Million |
| 11 | Captain Marvel | $153.4 Million |
| 12 | Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2 | $146.5 Million |
| 13 | Thor: Love and Thunder | $144.1 Million |
| 14 | Iron Man 2 | $128.1 Million |
| 15 | Thor Ragnarok | $122.7 Million |
| 16 | Spider-Man: Homecoming | $117 Million |
| 17 | Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania | $106 Million |
“Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania” opened on President’s Day weekend, which is a 4 day weekend. The film is now 3rd highest earner in the President’s Day weekend.
| Film | President’s Day weekend |
| Black Panther | $242 Million |
| Deadpool | $152 Million |
| Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania | $118 Million |
| Fifty Shades of Grey | $93 Million |
But the negative reception shows its impact on the second weekend. “Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania” gets the worst 2nd weekend drop for a MCU movie at -69.6%, collecting just $32.2 Million domestically. It is also the worst 2nd weekend decline for a superhero movie that opened with $100 Million or more.
Avatar: The Way of Water
Since its arrival on the big screen, James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” is creating box office records left and right. The highest grossing movie of 2022 has now surpassed the worldwide collection of James Cameron’s own “Titanic,” and became the third highest grossing film of all time.
| Rank | Film | Worldwide Collections |
| 1 | Avatar | $2.92 Billion |
| 2 | Avengers Endgame | $2.79 Billion |
| 3 | Avatar: The Way of Water | $2.25 Billion |
| 4 | Titanic | $2.24 Billion |
| 5 | Star Wars: The Force Awakens | $2.07 Billion |
“Avatar: The Way of Water” also doing fabulous box office collection at the domestic market, i.e. North American box office. It entered the top 10 and now ranks 9th, surpassing “Jurassic World.”
| Rank | Film | Domestic Box Office |
| 1 | Star Wars: The Force Awakens | $936.6 Million |
| 2 | Avengers Endgame | $858.3 Million |
| 3 | Spider-Man: No Way Home | $814.1 Million |
| 4 | Avatar | $785.2 Million |
| 5 | Top Gun: Maverick | $718.7 Million |
| 6 | Black Panther | $700.4 Million |
| 7 | Avengers Infinity War | $678.8 Million |
| 8 | Titanic | $673.8 Million |
| 9 | Avatar: The Way of Water | $665.3 Million |
| 10 | Jurassic World | $653.4 Million |
Pathaan
Shah Rukh Khan’s comeback after 4 years, brought a storm in the box office. “Pathaan” is now the highest grossing Hindi film ever. It grossed more than 1000 crores at the worldwide box office now. On February 21, it touched the magical 500 crores mark at the Hindi Nett box office. The 2nd best is Aamir Khan’s “Dangal” having 387 crores of box office collection. As of writing this article, “Pathaan” has collected 507.60 crores at the Hindi Nett box office. “Pathaan” only took 2 days to reach the 100 crores mark, while 200, 300, 400 & 500 crores were crossed on 4, 7, 12, and 28 days respectively.
Shehzada
After the box office success of “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2,” Kartik Aryan is back with his new film “Shehzada.” But a clash with “Ant-Man and the Quantumania,” and negative reviews really hampered this film’s box office and could only make 6 crores on the first day. The 2nd and 3rd day also did not show significant growth, earning only 6.65 crores and 7.55 crores respectively, for a first weekend total of 20.20 crores.
Selfiee
Akshay Kumar’s poor run at the box office continues. But this time, the collection is so low that it sent a shockwave around the industry. “Selfiee” opened with a record low in Akshay Kumar’s career with just 2.55 crores. Saturday and Sunday also did not see any significant growth and collected only 3.80 crores and 3.95 crores respectively, for a weekend total of just 10.30 crores. This film will prove to be one of the biggest box office disasters of all time in Bollywood.
