Captain America: Brave New World is inching closer to the $300 million mark at the global box office, yet a significant 68% drop in domestic earnings during its second weekend poses a challenge for the MCU film to reach its break-even point. According to Deadline, the movie, which boasts a production budget of $180 million, needs to hit around $425 million to break even.
The action-packed film, led by Anthony Mackie, exceeded expectations with a $100 million domestic haul over the Presidents Day weekend. However, its second weekend saw a sharp decline to $28.2 million domestically, mirroring the steep drop experienced by 2023's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which ultimately failed to break even.
After just two weekends, Captain America: Brave New World has amassed an estimated $289.4 million globally, with $141.2 million from the domestic market and $148.2 million internationally, as reported by Comscore. The film's second weekend brought in $63.5 million worldwide.
Despite being the biggest release of 2025 so far, the film's second weekend drop was steeper than anticipated, especially with no major competing blockbusters on the horizon. Paul Dergarabedian, a senior analyst at Comscore, commented to Variety, "This is the new normal for Marvel movies. There’s still no denying these movies have appeal. But a second weekend drop of 68% reflects less audience enthusiasm than you’d expect from Marvel."
Deadline predicts that Captain America: Brave New World will ultimately gross about $450 million globally.
The film's launch was met with lukewarm reviews, with IGN's Captain America: Brave New World review giving it a 5/10, stating, "Captain America: Brave New World feels neither brave, nor all that new, falling short of strong performances from Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, and Carl Lumbly."
Marvel Studios and Disney are banking on Captain America: Brave New World to regain momentum and reverse the recent downward trend for MCU films, aside from the success of last year's Deadpool & Wolverine. The hope is to build excitement leading into the releases of Thunderbolts* in May and The Fantastic Four: First Steps in July.