• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

The summer box office had an unexpected pullback in the first week in August as one major debut -- Disney/Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” -- dramatically slipped more than expected in its second week of box office revenues -- $40 million, according to IMDb’s Box Office Mojo.

That's a drop of nearly 70% from its first-week $118 million opening weekend, raising eyebrows for some analysts who were expecting a drop of around 55%.

The drop was not due to any real, new competition.

Universal/Dreamworks Animation's "The Bad Guys 2" comedy landed at $22.8 million in its debut, in line with expectations. Paramount’s comedy “The Naked Gun 2” came in at $17 million, also in line with projections.

Analysts believe this "Fantastic Four” edition has not been able to expand beyond its core, heavy-in-theater young action/comic book-centric viewers.

For their respective openings, Universal spent an estimated $13.8 million in national TV advertising, with Paramount’s “The Naked Gun” coming in at $12.2 million, according to EDO Ad EnGage.

Year-to-date -- through seven months of 2025 -- national TV advertising is down 5% to $550.9 million (145,600 airings and 78.2 billion impressions) from last year’s total of $578.1 million (120,630 airings and 68.1 billion impressions).

The top 20 movies are down 10% to an average $17.89 million in national TV ad spend, while the top 30 movies are off 6% to $14.87 million.

The highest TV ad spending for a movie so far is Universal Pictures' "Jurassic World Rebirth," at $33.6 million.