A milestone was set today for Marvel’s Ant-Man as the film officially passed 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger in domestic box office receipts. The action film- the first to introduce actor Paul Rudd (The 40-Year-Old Virgin)- as the bite-sized crime fighter- has brought in $176.8 million dollars in the North American box office since opening in theaters on July 17, 2015. It’s worldwide box office figure currently stands at $395.5 million.
While somewhat a sluggish figure solely considering Marvel’s own tremendously successful history since the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe began with the 2008 feature Iron Man, Ant-Man is unquestionably a success. The film, both domestically and internationally, ranks as the tenth highest grossing MCU title to date. While Ant-Man‘s take is considerably less than Marvel’s earlier 2015 title Avengers: Age of Ultron ($458.6 million domestic) and last summer’s surprise phenom Guardians of the Galaxy ($333.1 million domestic), Ant-Man‘s take is in line with 2011’s Thor ($181.0 million domestic) and Captain America: The First Avenger ($176.6 million domestic).
The further story behind Ant-Man‘s box office numbers raises the question over whether or not the film may have a standalone sequel to itself. Getting Ant-Man to the screen in the first place came with more than a few glitches- most famously with the stepping down of original director Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World)- yet in the end, audience and critical reaction was fairly positive. It’s worth noting that the first Captain America (now popularly viewed as a fan favorite) feature opened and played at nearly the same level as Ant-Man back when it first opened, only to see it’s sequel (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) expand both creatively and commercially in small way thanks to The Avengers (2012) bump.
We shall see if Ant-Man‘s box office legs can carry it further. It currently stands as the tenth highest grossing title of 2015 alongside its tenth place slot on the Marvel Cinematic Universe chart. You can next see Rudd as Ant-Man in next summers’ highly anticipated Captain America: Civil War.
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