Box Office - Captain America: Brave New World Earns 2025"s Biggest Debut Yet Despite One Of MCU"s Lowest RT Scores [Full Chart Update]

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UPDATE: 2025/02/16 08:03 EST BY BRENNAN KLEIN Captain America: Brave New World Secures A $100 Million Holiday Weekend, Heart Eyes Surges
This article was originally written Saturday AM and has been updated Sunday AM with up-to-date box office projections (in bold), a full chart, and further analysis.
Captain America: Brave New World has broken a 2025 record in spite of hurdles. The new Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, which directly follows the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, sees Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), having taken over the mantle of Captain America, being dragged into international intrigue alongside President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford). Captain America: Brave New World reviews have been mixed, earning the movie a 50% Rotten Tomatoes score at the time of writing, which makes it the third lowest-rated MCU movie behind Eternals (47%) and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (46%).
Per Variety, as of Sunday morning, Captain America: Brave New World is projected to close out its opening weekend with a 3-day domestic debut of $88.5 million with a 4-day weekend of $100 million over the President"s Day holiday. This 3-day total will mark the best debut of 2025 so far, more than doubling the $36 million debut of DreamWorks" Dog Man, which was the previous record-holder. This marks the third-best opening for any Captain America movie, landing ahead of The First Avenger ($65 million) but behind The Winter Soldier ($95 million) and Civil War ($179.1 million).
Two import titles have also joined the domestic chart after performing well overseas. Paddington in Peru has taken No. 2 behind the MCU movie with a $12.5 million 3-day total and a $15 million 4-day after earning more than $80 million internationally. This domestic debut is about par for the franchise, as the previous two movies debuted with $18.9 million and $11 million respectively.
The bottom of the chart has also been rounded out by the Chinese animated movie Ne Zha 2, which recently broke the record for highest-grossing movie in a single region by surging past the $1 billion milestone in its home territory. Below, see the full domestic Top 5 chart for the holiday weekend:
#
Title
3-Day Total
4-Day Total
Cumulative (Domestic)
1
Captain America: Brave New World
$88.5 million
$100 million
$100 million (weekend 1)
2
Paddington in Peru
$12.5 million
$15 million
$15 million (weekend 1)
3
Heart Eyes
$10.1 million
$11.4 million
$22.9 million (weekend 2)
4
Dog Man
$9.73 million
$12.5 million
$69.5 million (weekend 3)
5
Ne Zha 2
$7.3 million
$8.3 million
$8.3 million (weekend 1)
Elsewhere on the chart, holdover titles have scrambled into position, with the Valentine"s Day slasher Heart Eyes taking a surprise lead over DreamWorks" Dog Man with a projected 3-day haul that represents a week-on-week rise of 22%, a historic sophomore weekend. Although horror movies typically have harsh week 2 drops of 50% or more, the movie has harnessed its holiday-themed setting to earn the third-best week 2 for any slasher movie ever, behind only Terrifier 2 (+28%) and 1996"s Scream (+42.8%).
Heart Eyes is No. 3 over the traditional 3-day weekend, but No. 4 behind Dog Man over the 4-day holiday weekend.
With three new releases dominating the chart, multiple holdover titles have been pushed out of the Top 5, including the sci-fi thriller Companion (falling from No. 5 to No. 9), the Disney prequel Mufasa: The Lion King (from No. 4 to No. 7 over the 3-day weekend, No. 6 over the 4-day), and the action-comedy Love Hurts (from No. 3 to No. 6/No. 7).
What This Means For Captain America: Brave New World Week 2 Could Ultimately Decide Its Fate So far, the Captain America: Brave New World release seems to be performing reasonably well compared to many of its MCU peers. In addition to debuting at roughly the same level as The Winter Soldier, which ended up earning $714.4 million worldwide and became the seventh highest-grossing movie of 2014, its opening weekend is set to earn nearly double the $46.1 million debut of 2023"s The Marvels, which remains the lowest-grossing Marvel movie of all time. However, it remains to be seen how the Sam Wilson-led sequel performs by the end of its run.
Sam Wilson was originally introduced as Falcon in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, later reprising the role in Avengers: The Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and the animated series What If...?
The Captain America: Brave New World budget is reportedly $180 million, which would likely necessitate it making $450 million worldwide in order to break even. This may not be possible if it collapses in its sophomore weekend like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which debuted even higher, earning $106.1 million, but only made $463.6 million by the end of its run. Such a collapse is entirely possible considering the fact that it has not been well-received by critics or audiences. In addition to its Rotten Tomatoes score, it earned a B- CinemaScore, which is the lowest yet for the MCU.
Our Take On The Weekend Box Office Captain America's Record Was Made To Be Broken Close While Captain America: Brave New World had the splashiest debut of the year so far, its muted opening compared to other MCU hits makes it highly likely that upcoming 2025 blockbusters will blow it out of the water. However, it could very well hold its record for another full month, as the first movie that could potentially take its crown is Disney"s live-action remake Snow White, which debuts on March 21. If that doesn"t happen, it will almost surely be usurped by other tentpoles including the upcoming Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, Jurassic World Rebirth, and Superman.
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Source: Variety
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Captain America: Brave New World Fantasy Adventure Action

4/10 169 7.2/10 Release Date February 14, 2025 Director Julius Onah Writers Dalan Musson, Malcolm Spellman Prequel(s) Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War Franchise(s) Captain America, Marvel Cinematic Universe Cast See All