UPDATE: 2025-05-28 08:03 EST BY BRENNAN KLEIN

Captain America: Brave New World Secures A $100 Million Holiday Weekend, Heart Eyes Surges

This article was originally written Saturday AM and has been updated Sunday AM with up-to-date box office projections (in bold), a full chart, and further analysis.

Captain America: Brave New Worldhas broken a 2025 record in spite of hurdles. The new Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, which directly follows the Disney+ seriesThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier, sees Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), having taken over the mantle of Captain America, being dragged into international intrigue alongside President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford).Captain America: Brave New Worldreviewshave been mixed, earning the movie a 50% Rotten Tomatoes score at the time of writing, which makes it the third lowest-rated MCU movie behindEternals(47%) andAnt-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania(46%).

PerVariety, as of Sunday morning,Captain America: Brave New Worldis projected to close out its opening weekend with a 3-day domestic debut of$88.5 millionwith a 4-day weekend of$100 millionover the President’s Day holiday. This 3-day total will markthe best debut of 2025 so far, more than doubling the $36 million debut of DreamWorks’Dog Man, which was the previous record-holder. This marks the third-best opening for anyCaptain Americamovie, landing ahead ofThe First Avenger($65 million) but behindThe Winter Soldier($95 million) andCivil War($179.1 million).

Two import titles have also joined the domestic chart after performing well overseas.Paddington in Peruhas taken No. 2 behind the MCU moviewith a $12.5 million 3-day total and a $15 million 4-day after earning more than $80 million internationally. This domestic debut is about par for the franchise, as the previous two movies debuted with $18.9 million and $11 million respectively.

The bottom of the chart has also beenrounded out by the Chinese animated movieNe Zha 2, which recently broke the record for highest-grossing movie in a single region by surging past the $1 billion milestone in its home territory. Below, see the full domestic Top 5 chart for the holiday weekend:

1

$88.5 million

$100 million

$100 million (weekend 1)

2

$12.5 million

$15 million

$15 million (weekend 1)

3

$10.1 million

$11.4 million

$22.9 million (weekend 2)

4

$9.73 million

$69.5 million (weekend 3)

5

$7.3 million

$8.3 million

$8.3 million (weekend 1)

Elsewhere on the chart, holdover titles have scrambled into position, with theValentine’s Day slasherHeart Eyestaking a surprise lead over DreamWorks’Dog Manwith a projected 3-day haul that represents a week-on-week rise of 22%, a historic sophomore weekend. Although horror movies typically have harsh week 2 drops of 50% or more, the movie has harnessed its holiday-themed setting to earnthe third-best week 2 for any slasher movie ever,behind onlyTerrifier 2(+28%) and 1996’sScream(+42.8%).

Heart Eyesis No. 3 over the traditional 3-day weekend, but No. 4 behindDog Manover the 4-day holiday weekend.

With three new releases dominating the chart,multiple holdover titles have been pushed out of the Top 5,including the sci-fi thrillerCompanion(falling from No. 5 to No. 9), the Disney prequelMufasa: The Lion King(from No. 4 to No. 7 over the 3-day weekend, No. 6 over the 4-day), and the action-comedyLove Hurts(from No. 3 to No. 6/No. 7).

What This Means For Captain America: Brave New World

Week 2 Could Ultimately Decide Its Fate

So far, theCaptain America: Brave New Worldreleaseseems to be performing reasonably well compared to many of its MCU peers. In addition to debuting at roughly the same level asThe Winter Soldier, which ended up earning $714.4 million worldwide and became the seventh highest-grossing movie of 2014, its opening weekend isset to earn nearly double the $46.1 million debut of 2023’sThe Marvels,which remains the lowest-grossing Marvel movie of all time. However, it remains to be seen how the Sam Wilson-led sequel performs by the end of its run.

Sam Wilson was originally introduced as Falcon inCaptain America: The Winter Soldier, later reprising the role inAvengers: The Age of Ultron,Ant-Man,Captain America: Civil War,Avengers: Infinity War,Avengers: Endgame,The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and the animated seriesWhat If…?

TheCaptain America: Brave New Worldbudgetis reportedly $180 million, whichwould likely necessitate it making $450 million worldwide in order to break even. This may not be possible if it collapses in its sophomore weekend likeAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which debuted even higher, earning $106.1 million, but only made $463.6 million by the end of its run. Such a collapse is entirely possible considering the fact that it has not been well-received by critics or audiences. In addition to its Rotten Tomatoes score, it earned a B- CinemaScore, which is the lowest yet for the MCU.

Our Take On The Weekend Box Office

Captain America’s Record Was Made To Be Broken

WhileCaptain America: Brave New Worldhad the splashiest debut of the year so far, its muted opening compared to other MCU hits makes it highly likely that upcoming 2025 blockbusters will blow it out of the water. However, it could very well hold its record for another full month, asthe first movie that could potentially take its crown is Disney’s live-action remakeSnow White, which debuts on March 21. If that doesn’t happen, it will almost surely be usurped by other tentpoles including theupcomingLilo & Stitch,How to Train Your Dragon,Jurassic World Rebirth, andSuperman.