In 2025, Marvel Studios released three new movies, and it’s now clear which one performed the worst at the box office. Although some Marvel projects received positive reviews, the overall box office numbers were among the franchise’s weakest in recent years, with one film clearly underperforming compared to the others.
A recent box office report revealed that Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World was the lowest-grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for 2025. According to Variety, the movie earned $415 million worldwide, despite costing $180 million to make. While numbers for Thunderbolts and The Fantastic Four: First Steps weren’t released, the report confirmed Captain America 4 performed the worst of the three at the box office.
According to Forbes, Thunderbolts didn’t perform well financially for Marvel Studios, earning around $370 million at the box office while costing $180 million to make. Disney also spent an extra $100 million promoting the movie, which was the last film in Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The movie The Fantastic Four: First Steps cost around $200 million to make, a bit more than the other two Marvel films released in 2025. It went on to become Marvel’s biggest success of the year, earning over $521 million in theaters. Although exact promotional and overall spending figures aren’t available for all three films, The Fantastic Four had the highest budget of the three, and Captain America 4 had the lowest.
Looking at the bigger picture, Captain America: Brave New World performed worse at the box office than all other Captain America movies except the very first one, released in 2011. It also landed among the five lowest-grossing films in Marvel’s Multiverse Saga, and is among the seven lowest-grossing movies Marvel Studios has ever produced as part of the MCU.
Marvel Studios kicked off 2025 with Captain America: Brave New World, the second-to-last movie in Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film stars Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, taking on the mantle of Captain America, alongside Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, and other cast members. It follows Sam as he’s called upon by President Ross to help restore the Avengers following a dangerous global crisis. You can now watch Captain America: Brave New World on Disney+.
Explaining Captain America 4’s Box Office Struggles
The production of Captain America 4 wasn’t smooth sailing. The film experienced several delays before finally being released in February 2025, and went through a lot of reshoots. The script itself was worked on by five different writers, suggesting a complicated creative process.
The movie’s plot felt overly complicated because it tried to squeeze together multiple storylines into a relatively short runtime of just 118 minutes – making it the shortest Captain America film so far. It also attempted to revisit plot threads from the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk, featuring Harrison Ford as President Ross and Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns, which distracted from the main story about Sam Wilson.
Marvel Studios has a good opportunity to regain its box office success in 2026 with two promising new films.
The summer movie season starts with Spider-Man: Brand New Day in July, marking Tom Holland’s return as Peter Parker in his first solo film since the massive hit Spider-Man: No Way Home (the eighth highest-grossing movie ever!). With a fresh suit and a thrilling, down-to-earth story, Marvel and Sony are predicting huge success for this eagerly awaited movie.
In five months, Marvel Studios is set to release what promises to be a massive comic book movie, Avengers: Doomsday. The trailers are already playing with Avatar: Fire and Ash, and with many cast members and plot details still under wraps, the sequel is expected to be as successful as—and possibly even better than—the previous film, Avengers: Endgame.
Although Captain America 4 wasn’t a strong showing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and followed a series of challenging releases, 2026 looks promising and should give both Marvel fans and the studio reason to be optimistic.
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2025-12-27 01:35