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Disney/Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania arrived on tracking today with a projected 4-day $120M opening per industry sources. The threequel arrives in theaters on Feb. 17 and is the first in an avalanche of largely weekly tentpole fare which has been absent from the marketplace since the summer.
That result for Quantumania will land among the top three openings for the Presidents Day weekend after Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther in 2018 ($242.1M) and Deadpool ($152.1M).
Why so big? It all boils down to Marvel’s new baddie Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors, taking a more pronounced leading role in the movies here after first being introduced in the Disney+/Marvel Loki series. Kang’s terrifying talent: Being able to replicate himself into different variants and wage wars across the multiverse. Following Loki fans have been waiting for Kang to create more waves.
The anticipated U.S./Canada start for the Peyton Reed directed Quantumania on a 3-day basis of $100M-$105M reps a similar jump between the domestic openings of the first Ant-Man in 2015 ($57.2M) and Ant-Man and the Wasp ($75.8M) in 2018, that being +33%.
Marvel movies always arrive on tracking big, so it becomes slightly unpredictable in regards to how much they can overindex. Disney will begin showing off the Quantumania to the press post Feb. 6. The comp here on the threequel is Thor: Love & Thunder ($123M).
Ant-Man has been a sleeper franchise among Marvel movies, compared to monoliths like Captain America and Black Panther, with the first 2015 installment making $180.2M domestic/$519.3M WW, and 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp earning $216.6M domestic, $622.6M. The latter movie served as a bridge between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
Majors recently won audiences over at the Sundance Film Festival for his gripping portrayal of a tortured amateur bodybuilder in Elijah Bynum’s Magazine Dreams. The pic currently has 81% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with bidders circling.