Saying that Ant-Man underperformed at the US box office in its opening weekend would be an understatement. The movie marks the lowest opening weekend for Marvel, falling behind (or ahead, depending on how you look at it) only to The Incredible Hulk. With only $3 million more made in the first 3 days on American soil, Ant-Man can be considered a disappointment.

But only from this point of view "“ other than that, other than the box-office success (so far), the movie is actually a hit. Check out why we believe that Ant-Man is actually a better Marvel movie in the biggest franchise to date!

Ant-Man "“ small budget, smaller box-office earnings

It is no wonder that Ant-Man has made much less money in the US in its opening weekend. On a budget of just $130 million, the movie made just $58 million, falling short from even the least favorable predictions. In this way, as far as Marvel is concerned (who is used to make the budget of its films back within the first week or so), Ant-Man is actually a flop.

However, we must keep in mind one thing: nobody knew who Ant-Man was. And still the movie managed to make almost $120 million worldwide in its first week. And that says a lot. And we don't actually believe that the audiences flocked to see the movie because it was a Marvel film. Instead, the premise of a heist film with superheroes, marketed as such and in a very inventive manner, was the one that convinced the moviegoers that the movie was worth the while.

So, in this case, we can say that Ant-Man surpassed expectations. As far as unknown superheroes are concerned, it did quite well at the box office. For example, Guardians of the Galaxy (which is another hit with unknown superheroes) benefited from a huge budget (around $170 million). In both cases, word of mouth did wonders.

On the next page, the premise!