Although “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is still fresh in Marvel fans’ minds, the studio has already released “Ant-Man” as its final chapter to close out Phase 2 before “Captain America: Civil War” in 2016. The Paul Rudd-led hero flick was always a gamble on the studio’s part, given the hero’s lack of pop culture credibility, and it seems that the movie may be hitting below expectations… Sort of.

“Ant-Man” is the number one movie in the country right now, ahead of “Minions” and “Trainwreck.” While that is certainly something for Marvel to boast about, the film is still falling below expectations. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Ant-Man” was expected to debut in the $60-$65 million range. As the chart below reveals, that’s roughly the same range as the first “Captain America” and “Thor” movies, which isn’t a tough area since those two movies also introduced new heroes. Unfortunately, “Ant-Man” ended its domestic weekend with just $58 million.

While “Ant-Man” may be sitting pretty at the weekend’s number one spot, it marks Marvel’s lowest opening weekend for one of its movies since “The Incredible Hulk” hit theaters in 2008. That’s not exactly great company to be in as the Edward Norton-led movie isn’t even considered part of the canon by many fans. However, they’ll soon have to wake up to that fact once “Civil War” brings back both “Ant-Man” and a character from “Hulk.”

As critics have noted, “Ant-Man” is a fun movie but seems a bit torn about what kind of movie it wants to be. Having changed creative hands a number of times, the film is constantly torn between whether or not it wants to be a heist movie or a straight up superhero action film.

As the above chart also shows, the scale for Marvel is a bit skewed seeing as how, until recently, its “Avengers” movies held the highest opening weekend totals of all time. What do you think of the “Ant-Man” opening weekend figures in relation to Marvel’s other movies? Comment below or tweet your thoughts to @TylerMcCarthy.

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