Look, as a huge Marvel fan, it really stings to say this, but the Fantastic Four movie just didn’t land with audiences – and the Disney+ numbers prove it. It wasn’t a hit in theaters, and now it’s clear streaming didn’t save it either. It’s just…not performing well, and that’s disappointing.
Nielsen reported TV viewership numbers for the week of November 3rd to 9th, which included the premiere of Fantastic Four on Disney+ on November 5th.
The film only reached 556 million minutes of viewing time, making it the lowest-performing Disney+ debut for any Marvel Cinematic Universe movie so far.
The film’s numbers are lower than those of The Marvels, Captain America: Brave New World, and even Thunderbolts.
Viewership numbers clearly show that audiences aren’t responding to Marvel’s strategy after the Endgame movie.
A New Low Point for the MCU
Disney’s latest financial reports showed just how much the company relied on the success of its big theatrical releases last year. Without new hits like Deadpool & Wolverine or Inside Out 2, Marvel’s performance has declined in both movie theaters and on streaming services.
The recent Fantastic Four reboot was intended to be a key part of building towards Avengers: Doomsday, but its release on Disney+ suggests it isn’t performing as hoped.
It’s probably not an accident that Marvel delayed the releases of both Doomsday and Secret War after the disappointing performance of films like Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts, Captain America 4, The Marvels, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, as well as their Disney+ series.
The show started with 556 million minutes of viewing, which indicates a weak initial audience, few people watching more than once, and limited appeal to viewers who don’t typically follow shows closely.
This also highlights how much Marvel’s streaming performance has declined. Movies like Black Panther and the Guardians of the Galaxy series used to be consistently at the top of the charts, but that’s no longer the case.
What Nielsen’s Data Really Measures on Disney+
Trying to translate Nielsen ratings into a simple count of complete views isn’t very accurate.
Nielsen calculates viewership by counting every minute watched, even if someone only watches part of a show, rewatches it, or stops watching early. Because of this, their numbers tend to overestimate actual complete viewership, meaning the true number of people who watched the entire thing is likely lower.
Disney+ automatically tracks viewing data through Nielsen, which is the standard for measuring how people actually use streaming services.
Below is a selection of MCU debuts on Disney+ and their Nielsen viewership.
Nielsen MCU Streaming Debuts (Highest to Lowest, in Millions of Minutes):
- Black Panther 2: 2,269
- GOTG 3: 1,625
- Thor: Love and Thunder: 1,500
- Eternals: 1,437
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: 1,430
- Shang-Chi: 1,072
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: 766
- Captain America: Brave New World: 750
- Black Widow: 676
- Thunderbolts: 702
- The Marvels: 558
- Fantastic Four: 556
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2025-12-10 04:32