First Steps is coming in lighter than projections in its first box office weekend with $117.6 million. Still records were broken.

Fantastic Four First Steps cut John Malkovich's Red Ghost but Marvel Studios should use that footage as a one-shot.

This iteration of the Fantastic Four has a standalone adventure without all the burden of the MCU's history and cast of characters.

So it’s counterintuitive that Trank’s film revisits the origins of Reed Richards (Miles Teller), Sue Storm (Kate Mara), Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan), and Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell), going back even further than the usual Fantastic Four starting point to spend 10 minutes on Reed and Ben’s childhood friendship.

First Steps now playing in theaters, we've revised our ranking of the MCU's Multiverse Saga movies. Where does Marvel's First Family sit among this latest era of storytelling?

The best thing about First Steps is the aesthetic. It’s far and away my favorite part of this film, and that’s a problem because as much as I do enjoy a solid retrofuturistic aesthetic, it’s not enough to make a mediocre movie worth watching. This is all style over substance.

There are so many great villains and so many great characters in the Fantastic Four [comics], and there are hopefully other opportunities down the road to include them.” Malkovich’s Red Ghost appeared in the first Fantastic Four: First Steps teaser trailer that debuted back in February,

The Fantastic Four: First Steps has kicked off Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with an impressive $118 million domestic box office haul from its opening weekend. That’s the fourth biggest domestic opening of 2025, behind A Minecraft Movie ($162 million), Lilo & Stitch ($146 million), and Superman ($125 million).