After an explosive opening weekend at the box office that brought in $455 million worldwide, Captain Marvel continued to soar in week two: Marvel Studios’ first woman-led superhero movie made an estimated $69.3 million domestically and $120 million internationally in its second week in theaters. That brings its total to $266 million domestically and $760 million worldwide over two weekends.
That means Captain Marvel has already outpaced the lifetime domestic box office hauls of many of its Marvel peers, including 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 2016’s Doctor Strange, and 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp. It currently ranks as the 13th-most-successful Marvel movie in North America to date, and could easily move up the list.
Captain Marvel’s box office success comes despite the efforts of online trolls who tried to sink the movie’s online audience scores with fake reviews and low ratings on sites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB. (Critically, the movie has been met with mostly positive reviews.)
The film also carries a lot of industry pressure.
There are now 21 movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Captain Marvel, which is Marvel Studios’ first solo female superhero film. That gives it milestone status — just like Black Panther was Marvel Studios’ first black superhero film, or Wonder Woman was Warner Bros.’ first female solo superhero film, or Crazy Rich Asians was the first American studio movie since 1993’s The Joy Luck Club to feature an all Asian and Asian-American cast.
Success for the movie could encourage Hollywood executives to greenlight more woman-led superhero movies or stories featuring women heroes; if it had failed, it could have been used as an excuse to not make woman-led superhero movies, under the logic that people won’t go see them. (It’s an unfortunate reality that in the past, poorly received female superhero movies like 2004’s Catwoman and 2005’s Elektra have been cited as reasons not to make more superhero movies centered on woman characters.)
The next big benchmark for Captain Marvel to hit will be to surpass $1 billion worldwide, which it could very well do in the next few weeks. And while a sequel to Captain Marvel hasn’t officially been announced, the film is already a bona fide hit that is almost certain to get one.
In the meantime, Captain Marvel will make her next onscreen appearance in April’s highly anticipated Avengers: Endgame.
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