The Fantastic Four: First Steps opened to glowing reviews and a respectable, albeit not spectacular, $521.9 million at the worldwide box office. Superman is the year's highest-grossing superhero movie with $616.7 million, but in terms of profit, the difference may be minimal.
According to a new report from Forbes, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is one of Marvel Studios' cheapest movies to date. The site has combed through financial data released by the UK Government, with the cash reimbursement from the Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit (which gives studios back 25.5% of the money they spend in the country) lending a helping hand.
"Solve Everything Productions" spent $229.6 million (£180.9 million) over 13 months, leading to a $48.6 million (£38.3 million) reimbursement. That brought Disney's net spending on The Fantastic Four: First Steps down to a mere $181 million. That doesn't include marketing costs.
This means the reboot's production costs were significantly cheaper than The Marvels, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
In terms of sheer profitability, we're unlikely to ever have definitive numbers. Still, this does suggest that The Fantastic Four: First Steps was a profitable title that, hopefully, made enough to justify a sequel in the post-Avengers: Secret Wars MCU.
There have been unverified reports about Superman costing upwards of $300 million before marketing, so how much money it made for DC Studios remains up for debate. Ultimately, it might not matter because a sequel, Man of Tomorrow, is already in the works for 2027.
In July, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said the studio is "grinding down the budget" of its movies and that recent titles "have been upwards of a third cheaper than they were two years before that." With lower box office returns, that's a must.
In our review of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, we concluded, "The Fantastic Four is an exceptional introduction to the MCU’s First Family, and thanks to a Jack Kirby-infused feel that’s unlike anything we’ve seen before, it proves to be a quintessential superhero movie with Marvel Studios at its brilliant best.
Set against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world, Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps introduces Marvel’s First Family—Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as they face their most daunting challenge yet.
Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, they must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner). And if Galactus’ plan to devour the entire planet and everyone on it weren’t bad enough, it suddenly gets very personal.
The movie is now available on Digital, 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD, and Disney+.