First Steps is coming in lighter than projections in its first box office weekend with $117.6 million. Still records were broken.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps has kicked off Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with an impressive $118 million domestic box office haul from its opening weekend. That’s the fourth biggest domestic opening of 2025, behind A Minecraft Movie ($162 million), Lilo & Stitch ($146 million), and Superman ($125 million).

First Steps wastes no time diving into the team’s beginnings, and it does so with an exciting nod to the comics. The movie opens with a montage of their origin story and their very first showdown with Mole Man.

This iteration of the Fantastic Four has a standalone adventure without all the burden of the MCU's history and cast of characters.

First Steps” is the third Marvel movie to hit theaters this year, but it packs way more hidden references and nods than “Captain America: Brave New World” or “Thunderbolts.” It’s not on the same level of Easter eggs as last year’s “Deadpool and Wolverine,

The best thing about First Steps is the aesthetic. It’s far and away my favorite part of this film, and that’s a problem because as much as I do enjoy a solid retrofuturistic aesthetic, it’s not enough to make a mediocre movie worth watching. This is all style over substance.

That search now appears to be over, thanks to the phenomenal release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The film, which introduces Marvel’s First Family to the MCU, feels both refreshingly distinct and foundational.

Only one more movie stands between the arrival of Robert Downey Jr.’s Doom and Avengers: Doomsday. And that’s exactly why, despite all the hype, an iconic star, and the promise of two truly epic MCU films,