“Fantastic Four: First Steps” clobbers the competition with $218 million global box office debut

Marvel's first family may have just broken a box office curse.

Fantastic Four: First Steps has achieved the studio's biggest debut of the year, scoring a heroic $118 million at the domestic box office and $218 million globally, per Comscore.

The retro-futuristic adventure — starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn as the titular team — is off to an impressive start, especially compared to prior attempts at adapting this set of comic book heroes. 2005's Fantastic Four opened to an estimated $56 million while the 2015 reboot kicked off with a measly $25.6 million. But where those films were largely reviled, Matt Shakman's take on the heroes has been praised by critics and audiences alike and currently holds an 87 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

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This time around, the heroes also faced stiff competition in the form of DC's Man of Steel. But instead of losing out to the Kryptonian, the Fantastic Four has achieved a debut that's pretty on par with James Gunn's Superman ($125 million domestic opening and $220 million globally).

Courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios

Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic and Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/Human Torch in 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps'

Fantastic Four marks the start of a new chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, kicking off Phase Six with Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing as they attempt to defend Earth from Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and Silver Surfer (Julia Garner).

There's more than one superhero franchise entering a new era: Superman introduces stars David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, and Nicholas Hoult as Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor, respectively, for a new generation.

Despite four new heroes snagging some spotlight, Superman managed to continue a streak of success at movie theaters this weekend. The film earned an additional $24 million at the domestic box office, bringing its tally to a comfortable $289.5 million. On a global level, another $44.6 million means the DC film is sitting pretty with an estimated total of $502.7 million.

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Meanwhile, Jurassic World Rebirth dropped 45 percent in its fourth weekend in theaters, but still snagged an estimated $13 million in domestic markets for a $301.5 million domestic cume. The franchise reboot, fronted by Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali, also found success at the global box office, picking up $36.5 million for an impressive sum of $718.3 million.

Warner Bros

Damson Idris and Brad Pitt in 'F1'

Speeding past a major milestone is F1: The Movie has surpassed the $500 million mark worldwide. Earning $6.2 million domestically ($165 million total), the Apple Original film scored an estimated total of $509.6 globally. Starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, the film sees a once promising Formula 1 driver team up with a reluctant rookie.

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Rounding out the top 5 is a franchise reboot that's arrived to middling box office returns. Despite its best efforts to emulate the mega-success of the Trolls franchise with a crew of colorful, singing animated creatures, Smurfs didn't recover in its second weekend, declining 51 percent.

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The animated film — which, strangely, marks Rihanna's return to music — earned just $5.4 million domestically this weekend, totaling $22.7 million. The film found more success abroad, where it picked up an additional $16.6 million for a global tally of $69 million.

Next Friday sees DreamWorks' animated sequel The Bad Guys 2 and Paramount's comedy reboot The Naked Gun both enter the fray.

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