How Captain America: Brave New World's Box Office Compares To The MCU's Biggest Flops

While Captain America: Brave New World has been pretty divisive in terms of reviews, it’s interesting to look at its overall box office performance to gauge its current financial success. Although some predicted the new MCU movie was destined to be a commercial flop, that’s not necessarily true in actuality. To that end, it’s worth comparing Brave New World to Marvel Studios’ past movies with weaker box office numbers.

Captain America: Brave New World was released in theaters on February 14th by director Julius Onah. Starring Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson aka the new Captain America and Harrison Ford as President Thunderbolts Ross, tensions arise between Wilson and Ross amid a major conspiracy and Ross’ eventual transformation into the monstrous Red Hulk. As a result, the movie has currently had two weekends at the box office, so here’s how Captain America: Brave New World compares to the MCU’s biggest flops.

After 2 Weeks, Captain America: Brave New World Is NOT The MCU’s Biggest Bomb

It’s Already Passed The Marvels’ Entire Worldwide Total Gross

Custom Image by Milica Djordjevic

Year	2025
Budget:	$180 Million
Opening Weekend:	$88 Million
Domestic Box Office:	~ $141 Million
Worldwide Box Office:	~ $289 million

Although it’s still early, it can already be confirmed that Captain America: Brave New World is not the MCU’s biggest bomb at the box office. That title still goes to 2023’s The Marvels with a worldwide box office total of $204.7 million. This is a number Brave New World has already passed only two weeks in, as it’s currently sitting around $289 million. The new MCU movie has already earned more than 2008’s The Incredible Hulk starring Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, to which Brave New World’s plot has several ties.

However, Brave New World’s current numbers still put it below other MCU movies that were largely seen as commercial flops. This includes 2011’s Captain America: The First Avengers with a worldwide gross of $370 million, 2021’s Black Widow at $379.7 million, and Eternals at $402.06 million. That said, the movie likely still has a few more weeks to go in its theatrical window.

Why Captain America: Brave New World’s Box Office Is So Low

Divisive Reviews (And It’s Not Exactly An MCU Event)

Anthony Mackie as Captain America leaning forward in front of money — Custom image by Brennan Klein

Divisive reviews have certainly played their role in the lower turnout to see Captain America: Brave New World compared to other MCU movies. A majority of critics panned the movie, with Brave New World receiving a disappointing 49% percent on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the audience score is much more favorable with an 80%, though this has meant that Brave New World has needed to rely even more on positive word of mouth.

Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson smiling in Captain America: Brave New World and Harrison Ford's Thunderbolt Ross angry

10 Reasons Captain America: Brave New World Critics And Audience Reviews Are So Split

Captain America: Brave New World has divided audiences and critics, and a few key reasons explain the difference in opinions about the MCU movie.

It’s also worth mentioning that Brave New World can arguably be considered a quasi-reboot of the Captain America franchise desire being the fourth movie, considering it’s the first movie where Sam Wilson is the new Captain America, having inherited the shield and mantle from Steve Rogers in Avengers: Endgame and Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Also, Brave New World isn’t exactly an event-type film like 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine or 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, both of which earned over $1 billion at the box office.

Will Captain America: Brave New World Be A Box Office Success?

It’s On Its Way…

With a production budget of $180 million, Captain America: Brave New World has already earned back its budget by over $100 million. As such, it certainly could be on its way to becoming even more of a success in the coming weeks, especially with not a lot of competition coming up in the way of rival blockbusters, at least not for a few more weeks. That said, it did experience a pretty heavy second-week drop (68%) despite earning the most compared to other theatrical releases.

“Captain America: Brave New World has already proven itself to not be the worst-performing MCU movie of all time (but it certainly won’t be one of its best)…”

Only two other MCU movies had worse drops, with Ant-Man: Quantumania at 69% and The Marvels at 78%. With that in mind, I think it’s pretty safe to say that Brave New World will likely end up ending its run between 300-400 million. With that in mind, Captain America: Brave New World has already proven itself to not be the worst-performing MCU movie of all time (but it certainly won’t be one of its best).

Captain America: Brave New World is now playing in theaters from Marvel Studios.