Cosplayers at the UK Photocall of Marvel Studios' "Captain America: Brave New World" in London. (Jan, 2025, Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images)

Marvel Studios had a strong 2024 — can it sustain power at this year’s box office?

Disney’s not done squeezing the juice from Marvel.

Millie Giles

2/5/25 12:30PM

With the trailer for “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” dropping yesterday, and Disney reporting nearly $25 billion in revenue this morning, aided by bumper box office sales, the entertainment giant will be hoping that its key Marvel franchise can maintain the ticket-shifting momentum set by “Deadpool & Wolverine” last year.

While Marvel Comics go back as far as 1939, its entertainment business was acquired by the House of Mouse for a cool $4 billion in 2009, following the (somewhat unexpected) success of Marvel Studio’s first film, “Iron Man (2008)".

Ironclad

For the next decade, Marvel hammered out one star-spangled smash hit after the other — most notably, the Avengers two-parter in 2018 and 2019, the latter of which is now the second highest-grossing movie of all time having accrued ~$2.8 billion. But then, Marvel movies began stalling in cinemas as signs of superhero fatigue started to set in.

After “Endgame”, nine movies in succession — aside from fan favourite Spider-Man flicks — failed to reach the $1 billion mark, including ensemble movie “The Marvels (2023)”, the studio’s largest flop to-date. Marvel then stayed pretty quiet… until mid-2024, when “Deadpool & Wolverine” strutted to the 8th biggest opening weekend ever and a $1.34 billion total worldwide gross.

X Factor

Looking ahead, Marvel is banking on some classic formulas used in “Deadpool & Wolverine” to help it keep pace at the box office throughout the six film releases the studio has slated at present.

As always, sequels are a pretty safe bet — particularly for beloved franchises like Captain America, the fourth installment of which is set to hit screens in a week’s time. Extravagant fight scenes and easter eggs are to be expected, per the new trailer for the “Fantastic Four” reboot. And, of course, a dash of nostalgia… which might be why Marvel has recast Robert Downey Jr. for its upcoming Avengers movie.

Max Knoblauch10/24/25

Premium seats help push airlines higher following third-quarter results

Shares of American Airlines are climbing toward the carrier’s best trading day since August 12, when ultra-budget rival Spirit issued its initial warning about its ability to survive. American’s shares are up more than 7% on Friday afternoon.

Investors’ optimism comes a day after American posted a better-than-expected full-year earnings forecast. In a call with investors, American said that it’s ramping up its premium cabin offerings.

“Our ability to grow capacity in premium markets will be further supported as we take delivery of new aircraft and reconfigure our existing fleet. These efforts will allow us to grow our premium seats at nearly two times the rate of main cabin seats,” CEO Robert Isom said. American CFO Devin May said that nose-to-tail retrofits of certain wide-body jets will bump the number of premium seats available on those planes by 25%.

Extra legroom has been a boon for major carriers, particularly this quarter. Delta Air Lines said its premium product revenue grew 9% in Q3, compared to a 4% drop in economy seat revenue. Similarly, United Airlines said its premium revenue grew 6%, outpacing economy. Shares of both airlines were up more than 3% on Friday.

Carriers with less exposure to first- and business-class tickets like Southwest Airlines and JetBlue didn’t see the same amount of momentum on the day.