Strong box office performance from one MCU film doesn't necessarily carry over to the next.
Following
Avengers: Infinity War, the outlook for a third
Ant-Man film doesn't look particularly strong when you simply analyze the numbers on paper. In its third week at the domestic box office,
Ant-Man and the Wasp earned $8.3M (for a total of $183M), surpassing the lifetime domestic box office haul of its predecessor ($180M).
Worldwide, the film presently sits at $394M, trailing behind the $519M earned by the 2015 film by a sizable amount considering where the film currently sits in its release schedule.
However, there are two key elements to remember presently.
The film was released in North America well before most of the key international territories, a rarity for Marvel films.
Secondly, the film has not been released in China and doesn't even have a release date. That's because the Chinese government controls what foreign films are released there and they instill a blackout on all foreign films during the Summer in an effort to fuel their homegrown blockbusters. The present situation is similar to the first
Guardians of the Galaxy film, which was released domestically on August 1, 2014 but didn't hit China theaters until October 10. There is an outside chance that
Ant-Man and the Wasp doesn't receive a release date from the Chinese government but it's unlikely.
When looking at Ant-Man and the Wasp's current worldwide box office haul in this context, it will likely exceed the 2015 film's total by a fair margin.
Scott Lang is grappling with the consequences of his choices as both a superhero and a father. Approached by Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym, Lang must once again don the Ant-Man suit and fight alongside the Wasp. The urgent mission soon leads to secret revelations from the past as the dynamic duo finds itself in an epic battle against a powerful new enemy.
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