It’s often difficult for a movie sequel to outperform the original at the box office, but with the numbers coming in, it appears Ant-Man and the Wasp has done just that. The original Ant-Man hit theaters in 2015, and anticipation from hardcore Marvel comic book enthusiasts wasn’t quite as high as other Marvel Cinematic Universe films that preceded it. That said, the humor and charm of the movie brought a lighter tone to the MCU that delighted fans.
While other MCU films certainly surpassed Ant-Man in the box office, the original film ended up making $180 million domestically and $519 million worldwide according to Heroic Hollywood. Currently, box office estimates for the sequel indicate a slight surge in earnings. With the past weekend bringing in $8.4 million, it is projected that Ant-Man and the Wasp will soon pass $200 million total domestically. This may only be a small increase over the first film, but nevertheless it is encouraging news for the sequel.
One reason why Ant-Man and the Wasp is performing better than the original is because the MCU did something that fans have appreciated since they began building movie upon movie in an interconnected universe: they loosely connected the plot of the film to major tentpole events, and they brought back the original cast that fans grew to love. The star-studded cast includes Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne, and Michael Douglas as Dr. Hank Pym. New faces in the franchise consist of Randall Park as Agent Jimmy Woo, Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Bill Foster, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet Van Dyne.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is out in theaters now.
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