Could Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man be bigger than anticipated? No pun intended, of course, but early indicators suggest that Marvel has a larger audience waiting in the wings to see Paul Rudd in his superhero suit, suggesting that the July superhero release may give The Avengers: Age of Ultron a run for its Marvel money as holder of the box-office crown.
What suggests this? Well, early figures reported by EW.com note that the recent Ant-Man trailer attracted 29 million global views after making its debut during ABC’s Agent Carter last week. Marvel Studios claims that the number is higher than the trailer premiere for James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. In fact, the only other trailers in Marvel history to top that impressive number were the ones for Iron Man 3, and the most recent Age of Ultron clip.
See what all of the fuss was about by spinning the Ant-Man trailer one more time right here:
The Guardians of the Galaxy comparison is significant for Ant-Man for two reasons. One, James Gunn’s film went on to become the highest-grossing domestic release of 2014, amassing $333 million in theaters last year. But Guardians also marked Marvel branching away from the household names of The Hulk and Iron Man, introducing a new team of B-level heroes (no offense, Star-Lord), and the movie proved that audiences are willing to follow. Does this mean that audiences will follow Marvel anywhere, and make Ant-Man a huge hit? The numbers, at least at the onset, suggest that interest is very high on Ant-Man, and that should translate into dollars spent and tickets sold.
These numbers also show that Marvel Studios has built up a solid reputation as a hit-maker, and people are curious to see what they do next. As Eric and I talked about in the most recent episode of Hero Blend, I wouldn’t want to be the movie that has to follow up The Avengers: Age of Ultron. That movie seems like it is going to drastically and significantly change the landscape of Marvel Studios, and set the stage for a massive Phase Three. Will Ant-Man disappoint in comparison? Or can it be its own little, fun standalone film?
We’ll see how well Ant-Man performs when it opens on July 17. But for now, Marvel has to be excited by these early figures.
