“Captain America: Brave New World” delivered a heroic $88.5 million in its box office debut, with domestic ticket sales projected to climb to $100 million through the Presidents Day holiday on Monday.
Despite unfavorable reviews and terrible audience scores, the 35th entry in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe arrived slightly above projections and ranks as the biggest opening weekend of the year. It’s also the fourth-best Presidents Day launch on record following 2018’s “Black Panther” ($242 million), 2016’s “Deadpool” ($152 million) and 2023’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” ($120 million).
Overseas, “Captain America: Brave New World” collected an additional $92.4 million for a global start of $192.4 million through Monday. In the $180-million tentpole, Anthony Mackie takes up the mantle as Cap from Chris Evans, who played the star-spangled Avengers in Marvel movies for nearly a decade. Directed by Julius Onah (“The Cloverfield Paradox), “Captain America: Brave New World” finds Mackie’s Sam Wilson at the center of international catastrophe after the presidential election of Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford).
“This is the first blockbuster weekend of 2025,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
This holiday weekend was no doubt a busy one for the nation’s multiplexes, but box office watchers are curious about the big screen endurance of “Captain America.” Disney’s Marvel movies tend to start strong regardless of critical reception, but recent entries in the series that garnered mixed-to-awful reviews, like “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” “Eternals” and “The Marvels,” sank like stones after No. 1 debuts. “Brave New World” holds a 51% average on Rotten Tomatoes, one of the lowest-ever MCU ratings. Then there’s the “B-” from CinemaScore exit polls, among the worst grades in the sprawling film franchise. Cinema operators need “Captain America” to remain a box office draw in subsequent weeks because there’s nothing on the film release calendar that resembles a four-quadrant blockbuster until Disney’s “Snow White” remake on March 21.
Marvel Studios, which has shown signs of wear and tear after the epic success of 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” has two other tentpoles over the next six months: “Thunderbolts” on May 2 and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” on July 25.
Cap wasn’t the only newcomer to movie theater marquees. Sony’s “Paddington in Peru,” the third tale about the marmalade-loving bear, opened in second place with $13 million over the weekend and an estimated $16 million through the four-day holiday frame. Critics and audiences were charmed by the family film, which boasts a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and “A” grade on CinemaScore.
“Paddington,” based on the children’s series by British author Michael Bond, has always been far bigger with overseas audiences, and the third installment is no different. The third “Paddington” film, which was financed by StudioCanal for $90 million, has grossed $115 million internationally to date. The threequel has ways to go to catch up with the first two — 2014’s “Paddington” earned $326 million globally while 2017’s “Paddington 2” collected $290 million globally — in terms of worldwide ticket sales.
Elsewhere, Sony’s gory slasher “Heart Eyes” enjoyed a Valentine’s Day boost. The R-rated movie, following a masked murderer who strikes on the romantic holiday, notched the No. 3 spot with $10 million over the weekend and an estimated $11.1 million through Presidents Day. Those returns represent an impressive 20% jump from its $8.5 million debut and bring the film’s domestic box office tally to $22.6 million. “Scream” backers Spyglass Media Group financed the $18 million-budgeted “Heart Eyes,” which looks to end its box office run in the black.
Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s canine crime adventure “Dog Man” slid to fourth place after spending two weekends at No. 1. The kid-friendly film added $9.73 million over the weekend and an estimated $12.5 million through Monday. So far, “Dog Man” has grossed $69.5 million domestically and $84.4 million globally against its $40 million budget.
Rounding out the top five is “Ne Zha 2,” a Chinese-language animated film that’s become a runaway smash in the Middle Kingdom with $1.1 billion and counting. The movie, which is playing in just 660 locations, earned $7.3 million over the weekend and an estimated $8.3 million through the holiday.
