Captain Marvel isn’t just the first film in the MCU to be fronted solely by a woman.
It’s also now a record-breaking phenomenon.
Its global opening weekend was the biggest ever for a female-led film, smashing the previous record held by the live-action Beauty & The Beast, where Emma Watson had top billing.
Captain Marvel took in US$455 million in ticket sales worldwide – $98 million more than Beauty – and also is the second-biggest first weekend for a superhero movie of all time, behind (of course) Avengers: Infinity War.
And it’s also the sixth-biggest worldwide opening of all time – yes, all time. It’s just ahead of The Last Jedi, and just behind Deathly Hallows Part 2.
It’s a bit of a photon blast in the face to the trolls who tried to urge the internet to boycott Captain Marvel because they objected to overtly feminist marketing as well as Larson urging outlets to send journalists who were non-dudes or POCs to the film’s press opportunities wherever possible.
This is what she said.
She didn’t say she hated white men. She simply dared to want more inclusion.
She simply wanted to make sure we got a shot.And all these men showed their true colors.
Some of the journalists I USED to follow really showed their asses on this one. pic.twitter.com/qpe5PZUfal— Dani Fernandez (@msdanifernandez) February 28, 2019
The corners of the internet you would expect to have hurt fee-fees over a comment like that then launched the “Alita Challenge”, encouraging people to go see Alita: Battle Angel instead of Captain Marvel.
Skip Captain Marvel, see Alita instead ?#AlitaChallenge pic.twitter.com/1yQn052CcG
— Mike Gongolf (@MGongolf) March 4, 2019
Alita, which had opened the previous weekend, dropped from #3 on US box office to #5.
Captain Marvel‘s records should also quiet a few naysayers who shrug off its success as “inevitable”, given the power of the Marvel juggernaut.
Just ask the director of the disastrous 2015 Fantastic Four reboot, Josh Trank, who had a three-word reply to the idea that superhero films are box-office bulletproof:
Hold my beer.
— Josh Trank (@joshuatrank) March 10, 2019