The Captain Marvel ticket pre-sales are off to a great start. So far, the Carol Danvers standalone movie is the third highest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie in ticket pre-sales, right behind Infinity War and Black Panther. The first female-led MCU movie also just beat competitors Aquaman and Wonder Woman when compared to where they were at respectively two weeks before they hit theaters. The sudden spike in advance ticket sales may be due to the fact that the early reactions to the movie have been overwhelmingly positive.
Even with pre-sale tickets going strong, initial Captain Marvel opening weekend estimates place it around the $100 million to $120 mark, which is in the path of Wonder Woman. The Diana Prince standalone movie was able to bring in a little over $103 million during its opening weekend and there's a chance that the Carol Danvers standalone movie could come in below that. However, Marvel Studios has the promotional campaign going hard currently and there have been whispers of connections to Avengers: Endgame, making even more hype for the movie.
Aquaman only made $67.8 million during its opening weekend, but we all know how that turned out. The movie is currently the highest grossing DC movie of all time, having crossed the $1.1 billion mark globally. Moviegoers in China helped to boost those numbers and they did the same thing with Sony's Venom, which extended its theatrical run because of the extra attention overseas. If this trend continues, Captain Marvel could end up with some pretty stellar box office numbers when all is said and done.
Avengers: Infinity War ended up making over $359 million in China alone and Ant-Man and the Wasp even had a pretty strong showing with over $121 million. With Academy Award winning actress Brie Larson starring alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law, and Ben Mendelsohn, Captain Marvel could end up taking on Aquaman international numbers. At the very least it seems that the numbers internationally will be similar. As to whether or not the Carol Danvers standalone movie joins the $1 billion club, that's a whole other question entirely. Black Panther was easily able to cross that mark, though that character had the benefit of being introduced in Captain America: Civil War.
Captain Marvel is being set up as the new leader of the MCU in the upcoming Phase 4. Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige has said that Carol Danvers is the most powerful character to be introduced in the MCU thus far, which helps to add to the hype for the movie. That and addition to the release of Avengers: Endgame put the Carol Danvers standalone movie in an interesting place where anything can happen at the box office. With that being said, many are hoping that the movie will help break the dry spell that the North American box office has been under this year. The Hollywood Reporter was the first to announce the Captain Marvel pre-sale news.