Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania looks sent to end its box office run as the lowest of the Ant-Man trilogy and one of the lowest of the MCU. Currently the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase Five kick-off movie is sitting on a worldwide gross of $470 million, which is enough to make it the highest grossing movie of the year so far, but puts it behind both 2015’s Ant-Man and 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp, which earned a respective $519 and $622 million.

While the numbers have immediately made many jump on the “Marvel fatigue” bandwagon and confirm in their minds the death of the MCU and superhero movies, thanks in part to the poor showing of Shazam! Fury of the Gods in the last week, there are a number of factors that have played against the Ant-Man threequel. Despite promising the arrival of Kang the Conqueror and a big, bold Marvel action movie, there are some things that even a Marvel blockbuster cannot quite overcome.

Unlike previous Ant-Man movies, Quantumania has been released in the well-documented “dump” month of February, when movies are not expected to perform as well as they perhaps could do. Both predecessors were released slap-bang in the summer, and were able to tap into the blockbuster market on their years of release. In addition, Ant-Man was released between Avengers: Age of Ultron and “almost Avengers” movie Captain America: Civil War, while Ant-Man and the Wasp arrived at Marvel’s peak between Infinity War and Endgame.

Quantumania’s Box Office Has Suffered Due To China Release and Disney+
Marvel Studios

When breaking down the figures of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the film has actually outperformed Ant-Man at the domestic box office and will likely pass Ant-Man and the Wasp before its run ends. However, the movie’s biggest downfall has been the ongoing lack of love for Hollywood releases in China. While both previous Ant-Man movies took more than $100 million, Quantumania only made $39 million and like many U.S. movies released there has just not seen the kind of success that they saw several years ago.

Also to be considered is the huge change in streaming in the last three years. While back in 2018, there would be a lengthy wait for Marvel movies to make their way onto home media, now it is less than two months before films arrive on Disney+. Since the Covid pandemic, there are many movies that audiences will happily wait a little longer to see in their own homes rather than on the big screen.

All in all, it is hard to say that this kind of lower box office showing will continue, but as quick digital releases seem here to stay and China’s unpredictability, it seems that 2023 will be another year of some big wins but also many underperformances for some of the biggest movies of the year. With a packed summer schedule coming up, it will be interesting to see if any of this year’s releases can pull off a Top Gun: Maverick or will fail to take off.