Ant-Man Scores Modest Box-Office Opening; Post-Credits Set Up Captain America: Civil War

Marvel’s Ant-Man..Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd)..Photo Credit: Zade Rosenthal..? Marvel 2014

Disney and Marvel’s smallest hero, “Ant-Man” is reportedly headed for a modest opening of $58 million at the U.S. box-office this weekend. “Ant-Man” is certainly down on last year’s Marvel late Summer opener “Guardians of the Galaxy” which took $94 million and scored more impressive critical reaction, pushing that movie to over $330 million.

Forbes wrote, “The success of The Avengers took Marvel to a different playing field, and the Phase 2 films have been remarkably successful especially when compared to Phase 1. Most of the them were sequels. Guardians of the Galaxy was something of a fluke, coming off of strong buzz, superb reviews, and the sense that the film was the great late-summer blockbuster that was going to save us from the otherwise lackluster summer.”

The first credits scene shows Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) taking his daughter into a secret room that contains his wife’s suit, which is the outfit of the Wasp. For fans, this means that Pym’s daughter, Hope (Evangeline Lilly), will be playing the Wasp in future Marvel films. No mention on any spin-offs yet but cameos most likely.

The second post-credits scene is a preview of “Captain America: Civil War,” due out in May 2016. Captain America (Chris Evans) and the Falcon (Anthony Mackie) have finally captured Bucky Barnes, aka The Winter Soldier. Barnes is locked in a warehouse, but Rogers says “the accords” will not help them control Barnes. “We’re on our own,” Cap says. “I know a guy,” Falcon replies, which is a clear reference to “Ant-Man” (Paul Rudd) and his role in “Civil War” which will see Captain America be at odds with Iron Man.

Ant-Man director Peyton Reed spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the two scenes and what they mean for the characters involved.

On the post-credits scene:

“We always planned to have a second tag at the end of the credits roll. We actually cut some tags—most of them were comedic tags. I think we cut some things with Michael Peña’s Luis character and Rudd’s Scott Lang. They were mostly going to be these non sequitur comedic tags. But once we had our movie cut, and the whole subplot with the Falcon and Ant-Man crossing paths, the dailies from Captain America: Civil War started to come in, which is of course directed by the Russo brothers. And I was badgering Kevin (Feige, Marvel Studios president). I said “I want to see some of the dailies with Paul as Ant-Man. I was actually jealous that Ant-Man was even going to appear in another movie. [Laughs] So, I was dying to see it and I did see that footage and it’s incredible. And then, separate of that, when the dailies came in for the scene which is now the second tag, there was a moment that seemed to really complete the arc in our movie. We know, at the end of the movie, that Falcon is looking for Ant-Man, so now it really made sense to tease Civil War and to tease Ant-Man’s part in Civil War by having that scene with Captain America and Falcon.

We really wanted to do something that, at the end of that tag, we could throw up a title that said “Ant-Man will return.” In true Bond movie fashion, you know that he’s going to be back. Those were dailies from Civil War that we cut into a very succinct tag, just to kind of show the audience the progression. They know the Falcon is looking for Ant-Man for some reason at the end of our movie, we don’t know why. And then that second tag sort of gives a slight [bit of] more information about the situation that Captain America and Falcon find themselves in. It really is just meant to tease the fact that Ant-Man is in some way or another going to end up with these other characters. So, that’s how that came about.”

Ant-Man Scores Modest Box-Office Opening; Post-Credits Set Up Captain America: Civil War