Ant-Man and the Wasp has flown onto early tracking and already, the Marvel sequel is causing quite the buzz.
Case in point: The Hollywood Reporter brings word today that, if pre-release surveys are any indication, Ant-Man and the Wasp is destined for a $75M opening weekend in North America – notably higher than that of the original Ant-Man, which opened to around $57M three years ago on its journey to $519M worldwide.
That tells us Peyton Reed’s pint-sized sequel may break $600M at the global box office when all is said and done, but it’s far too soon to be talking about final tallies considering Ant-Man and the Wasp is yet to stage its theatrical debut.
What we do know, however, is that the Marvel movie – the 20th installment in the ongoing MCU, no less – will likely receive a boon in ticket sales thanks to the lingering excitement from Avengers: Infinity War, which has since become one of only four movies to crack $2 billion worldwide, not adjusted for inflation.
For Ant-Man and the Wasp, $75 million is a solid, if unspectacular start to the sequel’s box office journey – for the sake of perspective, other MCU sequels like Thor: The Dark World ($85M) and The Winter Soldier ($95M) landed in a similar ballpark – though we should stress that those projections are subject to change depending on how the film fares with critics.
There’s currently no mention of when the review embargo lifts, but we imagine it’ll be sometime before the end of June, what with Ant-Man and the Wasp scheduled to light up theaters on July 6th – save for those in the United Kingdom.
Whatever the outcome, we’ll be keeping a close eye on those box office figures as the numbers begin to roll in.