The international and domestic theatrical markets have always been a bit of a dichotomy but in that rare moment where the stars line we will sometimes see films perform well in both. What the slump of the January films having settled completely February is already off to a much stronger start post-Super Bowl with audiences walking back to theaters in America and internationally during the holiday sending people out to catch the new films. At the top of the charts for this year’s Valentine’s Day weekend was Marvel’s latest theatrical release Captain America Brave New World or Captain America 4.
To the surprise of both studios and audiences, this holiday weekend saw the best opening for 2025 so far with Captain America Brave New World with a $100 million opening 3-day weekend domestically. While not the largest opening for Marvel for the Valentine’s Day weekend it is still a much better performance than the B minus Cinema score would suggest. The owner of that largest Valentine’s Day opening for Marvel is held by 2018’s Black Panther which raked in $242.2 million on that weekend. A few more sit above Brave New World as higher grosses for Marvel’s Valentine’s opening 2016’s Deadpool and 2023’s Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantomania being those films. One thing all these films have in common is their diverse cast and family or larger group appeal that all these films have been able to carry over into larger swaths of audiences according to PostTrak reported by the Hollywood Reporter. Including a higher turnout for female Black and Hispanic audience members as reported with 23 percent of both ethnic groups represented in the audience. Caucasian males are still the predominant audience for Marvel films overall but the greater reach certainly shows in the numbers as Marvel films diversify their cast.
Aside from the timing and appeal boost for Captain America 4 the film also has the market all to itself as far as action films go with its competitors being spares, flopping, or being a few weeks in theaters already. Internationally earning $192.4 million against a 180 million budget the film is in a good position to turn a profit unless there is a massive decline by the next weekend. While not as an extensive advertising campaign as previous MCU installments another advantage Brave New World had over the last few Marvel entries is its standalone nature disconnecting itself from the greater multiverse storyline that has been present in many of Marvel’s films over the last few years.
Paddington 3 or Paddington In Peru earned $16 million for this weekend and a much friendlier score from critics and audiences. Bagging an A CinemaScore from audiences and 94 percent on RottenTomatoes the film also filled the void for family films internationally that hadn’t had any landings in January opening in Europe before a domestic release. The international gross sits at $115.8 million with $19 million more from that Global Market being added to the domestic earnings for Paddington netting it $131 million in total and will likely keep going with a streaming date likely being dropped soon.
Despite not being a universally appealing family film it scored $35.5 million for the weekend from Miramax, Universal, and Working Title was Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy starring Renée Zellweger debuting for the US on Peacock it managed to keep up with the other new titles despite not being counted for the theatrical top 10.
Dog Man earned $12.5 million for its Valentine’s weekend landing a total of $69.6 million for DreamWorks. For its third week in theaters, Dog Man will be the animated film to see for families until Disney or Paramount Premiere their next releases.
The Valentine slasher Heart Eyes earned $11.1 million for its holiday inspiration weekend adding to its total of $22.6 million knocking it over its $18 million budget. The film will likely kick around a bit longer in theaters before seeing its streaming drop date.
Ne Zha 2 an animated Chinese blockbuster has earned 1.1 billion making it one of the highest-grossing animated films of all time despite only opening in six theaters in the U.S. it still earned a spot for the domestic top five with $8.3 million more for its winning streak. Both critics and audience appeal the film will likely become a contender for best-animated feature for the next award season. After taking the world by storm who knows how much more the film will earn.
