Prior to this weekend, the last time a Captain America movie was in theaters was 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. And that was practically an Avengers movie. Captain America: Brave New World essentially resets the franchise with Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson firmly in place as the new Captain America. While the stakes are high, the former Falcon doesn’t have an all-star cast of heroes to back him up this time.
Regardless, the box-office projections for Brave New World are promising, with estimates suggesting that the film could bring in $90 million or more across the long Presidents’ Day weekend. But as for the question that brought you here, it’s time to let you in on the answer.
Is Captain America: Brave New World streaming?
No. There was only one Marvel Studios movie that opened day-and-date with its Disney+ debut, and that was a debacle. Disney tried that experiment with Black Widow in 2021, just as the country was starting to emerge from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Black Widow‘s opening weekend, Disney execs may have thought the simultaneous streaming/theatrical model was a success since it had $80.4 million in North America on top of the premium upcharge Disney+ subscribers paid to watch it at home.
Unfortunately, the second weekend told a different story as Black Widow‘s North American theatrical numbers crashed 67% to $25.8 million. It was widely seen as being hurt by the simultaneous release and Scarlett Johansson actually sued Disney while alleging that the studio prevented her from getting large bonuses that would have been paid out if Black Widow had hit certain box office benchmarks. The suit was eventually settled out of court and Johansson was rumored to have gotten $40 million out of that.
All of that is exactly why no other Marvel Studios film — including Brave New World — has ever gone day-and-date with streaming again. Even when Marvel movies fail at the box office, like The Marvels, it’s still more lucrative to give the films an exclusive run in theaters.
When will Captain America: Brave New World be available to stream?
Disney has moved away from its attempts to dramatically shorten the window of time before a film can jump to steaming after a theatrical release. However, there’s no set time for a movie to make the leap to Disney+. The most-recent MCU film prior to Brave New World was Deadpool & Wolverine, which took just under three and-a-half months to go to Disney+.
That said, Deadpool & Wolverine‘s box-office success may have played a part in slowing down its streaming premiere. If Brave New World is also a hit, then its theatrical life will likely be extended to a similar length as Deadpool & Wolverine. The numbers out of week No. 1 are solid, but this film’s real test begins in week 2 when we see how much business it will shed.
Captain America: Brave New World is now playing in theaters.
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