• by Wayne Friedman , February 16, 2025

Despite tough reviews, Walt Disney-Marvel’s sequel “Captain America: Brave New World” overdelivered to near $100 million for a mid-February Presidents holiday weekend opening, according to Comscore.

This occurred while the movie had a low review score on Rotten Tomatoes (50%), and earned a B- from CinemaScore, the worst grade for any Marvel Cinematic Universe theatrical movie.

The previous edition of the franchise -- “Captain America: Civil War” (2016) -- took in $179.2 million for an April opening.

For the current “Captain America,” Walt Disney spent a modest $21 million in pre-opening national TV advertising -- with 3,270 airings, amassing 2.1 billion impressions. “Captain America: Brave New World” is the biggest opening for a movie so far in 2025.

Other Marvel movies also debuted on Presidents weekend -- “Deadpool” ($130.4 million in 2016), "Black Panther" ($202 million in 2018), and "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" ($106.1 million in 2023).

One other major studio-wide release started up -- Sony Pictures' "Paddington in Peru," earning $13 million.

The second week of Sony’s "Heart Eyes" took in a decent $10 million, with the third week of Universal’s "Dog Man" at $9.7 million.

Walt Disney's hit "Mufasa: The Lion King" -- now in its 9th week, added $4.2 million, with $240.8 million domestically.

The year-to-date domestic box office is now up 22% to $867.8 million, according to Comscore.

National TV spend is down 8% to $134 million (from $156.9 million), according to EDO Ad EnGage.

There were some 18,800 airings, with 13.2 billion impressions this year (18,770 airings, compared to 12.5 million impressions a year ago.