Captain Marvel IMAX ticket pre-sales are outpacing similar titles like Wonder Woman and Thor: Ragnarok. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is coming off a highly-successful 2018 that saw the franchise collectively move past the $17 billion mark at the worldwide box office and score the first ever Best Picture nomination for a comic book movie. Kevin Feige and company are hoping their good fortune continues in 2019, and their first film out of the gate is Captain Marvel. A 1990s period piece, it introduces audiences to Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, who is going to be an integral part of the MCU moving forward.
Marvel Studios is riding a rather unprecedented hot streak for the past handful of years; every installment since 2013’s Thor: The Dark World has been Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and they’ve all been box office smashes. Unsurprisingly, that’s expected to continue when Captain Marvel opens in early March. Initial reactions to the film were quite positive, and the film is poised for an opening weekend haul of more than $100 million domestically. Audiences can’t wait to see it on the big screen, evidenced by the number of people pre-ordering their tickets.
According to IMAX, Captain Marvel is tracking better in advanced ticket sales than the likes of Deadpool 2, Wonder Woman, and Thor: Ragnarok. Marvel’s latest will open on a record 1,360 IMAX screens next week, illustrating the demand there is to watch the film in the premium format.
Considering Captain Marvel is also outpacing recent superhero films on Fandango, it isn’t surprising to see it do this well with IMAX. Blockbusters like MCU entries are designed to be seen on the biggest screen possible, bolstered by action set pieces and state-of-the-art visual effects. Judging by the Captain Marvel trailers, the film will have plenty of spectacle. Additionally, the early part of 2019 has been rather slow at the box office, with offerings like Glass and The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part not leaving much of an impression. Audiences are hungry for a new tentpole, and Captain Marvel is definitely the biggest release since Aquaman at the end of last December. The arrival of a fresh Marvel movie was always going to give the marketplace a massive shot in the arm.
It’ll be interesting to see how much Captain Marvel makes in its first three days. Back in January, it was pegged to earn as much as $160 million, but those estimates later went down to the current $100 million. The actuals will probably be somewhere in between those two figures, but fans will get a better idea once the review embargo lifts and word-of-mouth continues to spread. At this point, the MCU is critic-proof and will always do well commercially, but a slew of positive reviews will only help Captain Marvel’s prospects and perhaps boost it past the expectations. Regardless, Marvel can once again sit back and watch the money come pouring in.
More: Guardians of the Galaxy Introduced The Skrulls Before Captain Marvel
Source: IMAX
