It’s been a terrific year for the team over at Marvel Studios and it just keeps getting better. After dominating the first half of 2018 with blockbuster flicks Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War, the studio has now laid claim to its 20th consecutive No. 1 opener at the box office with Ant-Man and The Wasp.
All thanks to an impressive debut pull of $76 million at the domestic box office, the Ant-Man sequel landed at the top spot among moviegoers, seeing an increase of 33% in comparison to the $57.32 million that the original film pulled in 2015. Globally, the film, starring Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly, has amassed $161 million.
This now marks the last in the triumvirate of films that Marvel had slated for 2018, capping off what’s been the biggest year for the studio to date. Things kicked off in February with Black Panther and continued on with the Infinity War installation, with each of those films bringing in almost $700 million each at the domestic box office.
"Ant-Man and the Wasp proves that at this point Marvel can seemingly do no wrong," says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at comScore. "By producing so many appealing films one after the other, audiences know what they are getting with Marvel and that trust has created an incredibly consistent level of box office success.”
Including the debut weekend of Ant-Man and The Wasp, Marvel Studios has officially grossed over $17 billion worldwide in the span of 20 films.