MovieChat Forums > The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) Discussion > If this one flops, what is the future of...

If this one flops, what is the future of Fantastic Four movies?


This would be third reboot to fail and fourth overall FF movie to flop. Superman has had some flops, but his character is so iconic: he can flop as many times as possible, and the demand for his films will always remain

But Fantastic Four doesn't have the same untouchability as Superman does. If this one flops critically and/or commercially, then they might have to question whether this franchise should appear on the big screen

reply

1994 never flopped. It was never released. Never intended to be. It was made to keep the rights.

2006 didn't flop either, but the sequel was bad and that killed the franchise.

2016 was definitely a flop and rightly so. It sucked BIG time.

I'm guessing if this one flops, then Sony may finally give the rights back to Marvel wholly. What they decide, I couldn't even guess.

reply

Sony doesn't own Fantastic Four though. 20th Century Fox did. And then Disney bought them. Along with the X-Men. Now they're back with Marvel.

So if it flops, it'll just be a Marvel/Disney flop.

reply

I was about to tell him the same thing. Marvel once again owns the rights to the Fantastic Four, acquired when they bought Fox.

reply

That's inaccurate. The 2005 and 2007 films were both popular, and profitable. The second one was not well-reviewed, and despite the film making $300 million on a $130 million budget, it wasn't successful enough to warrant a third film.

There was no film before those. You are probably referring to the 1994 film, which was made only to maintain Bernd Eichinger's rights to the franchise. It was conceived as a film that would be shot but never released, which is exactly what happened.

Only the most recent film, the ill-conceived 2015 reboot, can be labeled a flop.

Will the new one make lots at the box office? Who knows? If it's good, it should. All we've heard so far has been promising, but it's early to say.

reply

I was not referring to a 1994 movie (I had no idea that there was a 1994 FF film).

I said this 2025 movie would be the third reboot and fourth FF movie

The 2005 and 2007 films were critically panned by both audiences and professional critics, so I’m not sure they were popular. The 2005 film wasn’t a box office failure, but the 2007 film did not draw as much as the studios wanted, as they themselves noted

reply

The 2005 film was the first, and the 2007 film was its sequel. The 2015 was the first reboot. If you weren't including the 1994 film, then what do you consider to be the second reboot?

reply

I was referring to the 2005 film as a reboot in the sense that it was the start. But if you want to cling on the semantics between “boot” and “reboot,” then that’s being a bit pedantic

reply

I've never heard anyone refer to the first film in a franchise as being a reboot. That was the confusion. You may want to look up the meaning of the word reboot before calling me pedantic for not realizing what you meant.

reply