2025 is packed full of larger-than-life releases. We've already had the likes of Marvel Studios' own Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* while Lilo and Stitch and Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning continue to tear up the box office today. The end of the year will bring musical juggernaut Wicked: For Good to screens in what will no doubt be a marquee event too. And then you have the summer, particularly July, which houses some of this year's biggest releases.
In the space of that month, we will have Jurassic World Rebirth, Superman, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps all arriving in movie theaters. I know, I'm so excited too! It's going to be a booming month for the box office, for sure, but could that much competition have a negative impact on any of the movies themselves?
It's possible, but it seems that one of those movies in particular might end up thriving this summer, especially after this new update.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps sells more tickets in its first day than any other 2025 movie so far
What Fantastic news! According to American ticketing company Fandango, Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps has sold more tickets in its first day than any other 2025 movie thus far. That means it outpaced Marvel's previous releases, as well as Lilo and Stitch, and Jurassic World Rebirth. Not bad at all, and definitely the kind of win that Marvel needed after some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Multiverse Saga movies have struggled to match the franchise's glory days at the box office.
Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that First Steps will end up outgrossing those other movies as there are other factors to take into account (ticket sales throughout their runs, global performances, and which movies families will choose to see on a weekend at the cinema). But the film does have another advantage that the other summer movies don't: It's the last of the big-budget franchise flicks in July, meaning that competition from the others will have waned at least a little by that point.
There is definitely a significant amount of overlap in the audiences that will see Superman, Jurassic World Rebirth, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps (and some overlap with the more mature audiences of I Know What You Did Last Summer, too). However, Fantastic Four releases at the end of the month - three weeks after Jurassic World, two weeks after Superman, and over a week after I Know What You Did Last Summer, meaning that it will benefit from both being the new movie of the bunch and the weakened hold of its weeks-old competition at that point in time.
The MCU movie is the first in the franchise to be completely set in an alternate dimension as Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) bring the iconic quartet of heroes to life in their MCU debut. They'll have to contend with the threat of the Silver Surfer and the world-eating Galactus as the Marvel Studios franchise ramps up the stakes on the road to Avengers: Doomsday.
According to director Matt Shakman we shouldn't expect to see a cameo appearance from Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom. That will no doubt disappoint fans who were hoping for a glimpse of the franchise's new big bad, but given how well the film is already performing with ticket sales it sounds like it doesn't need the extra boost of a Doom cameo. That's pretty darn impressive!
We can't wait to welcome Marvel's First Family to the MCU when The Fantastic Four: First Steps arrives in movie theaters on July 25, 2025.