‘Captain America: Brave New World’ box office falls to less than incredible heights as Marvel nears make-or-break moment of truth

Captain America: Brave New World just enjoyed its third weekend at the box office, and one way of looking at it is that it retained its position in the top spot yet again. The other way of looking at it, however, is that this slacker of a superhero blockbuster isn’t quite hitting the numbers it should be for such an uncompetitive time of year. But, hey, at least it has now officially earned more than a certain infamous MCU movie.

All in all, this Oscars weekend made for a lackluster period at the box office, despite it being a time when you’d think cinema-goers would be full of movie-mania. Going by how middling Brave New World fared, though, it seems most film lovers skipped a trek to their local theaters to stay at home and finally rent Anora or The Substance before the Academy Awards started. Whatever the reason, the less than impressive numbers mean Captain America 4‘s fate still hangs in the balance.

Brave New World has officially grossed more than its biggest inspiration, but it still might not break even

Across its third weekend, Brave New World brought home $15 million more at the domestic box office. As per Variety, that means the Anthony Mackie vehicle has pulled in $163.7 million from North America in total. And, thanks to its slightly more robust international performance, that brings its current global gross to a nifty $341.8 million. In the grand scheme of things, that’s nothing to sniff at, but seeing as its biggest rivals right now are all niche releases — e.g. survival thriller Last Breath and horror-comedy The Monkey — you might expect the MCU’s latest crowd-pleaser to be, well, pleasing bigger crowds.

On the plus side, just before the weekend broke, Brave New World at last crossed a somewhat significant milestone. At the very least, the movie has definitely made more money than its most direct predecessor in the MCU — not, not Captain America: Civil War but 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. The Julius Onah-directed offering — which brings back three key characters and two legacy cast- from the oft-forgotten Edward Norton caper — is well past the $265 million brought in by Hulk across its entire theatrical run at this point. That is some kind of vindication for Marvel’s curious decision to make a shadow sequel to one of its most middling movies 17 years later.

With another slump in ticket sales inevitable as we head into its fourth week, the big question now is: can Brave New World manage to make enough to cross the all-important $400 million mark, which analysts have determined is how much it needs to dump in the bank in order to break even for Marvel and Disney. If it fails, the film will become the latest slice of the Multiverse Saga pie to be declared a box office bomb, after the likes of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels. In other words, Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four, the future of the MCU rests in your hands.