It was clobberin’ time this weekend, as Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” nabbed the top spot at the box office with a performance that returned the Walt Disney Co.-owned superhero franchise to form.

The movie hauled in $118 million in the U.S. and Canada and grossed $218 million globally in its opening weekend. The film, which stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn, is just the latest remake of the comic book property, though the first under Walt Disney Co.’s ownership.

Formerly owned by 21st Century Fox, “The Fantastic Four” is one of several key intellectual properties now under the umbrella of the House of Mouse after its $71.3-billion acquisition of that studio’s entertainment assets in 2019.

Disney has already capitalized on its ownership of the “Deadpool” and “X-Men” properties — its 2024 film, “Deadpool & Wolverine,” garnered more than $1 billion in global box office revenue.

Fox produced and released three “Fantastic Four” movies, none of which were well-received by audiences or critics. A 2015 reboot was particularly reviled.

Quality was not an issue this time. The movie notched a 88% approval rating on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and an “A-” grade from audience polling firm CinemaScore.

The movie exceeded pre-release estimates. “First Steps” was expected to gross $100 million to $110 million in its debut weekend, on a reported budget of about $200 million.

The theatrical reception for “The Fantastic Four” is a relief for Disney and Marvel, which has struggled in recent years to reap the box office earnings it once did with its superhero films.

The Anthony Mackie-led “Captain America: Brave New World” received middling reviews from critics and brought in about $415 million in global box office revenue. Ensemble movie “Thunderbolts*” received strong reviews, but made only $382 million worldwide.

Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger said earlier this year that the company “lost a little focus” in its zeal to produce more shows and movies for the Disney+ streaming platform, acknowledging that “quantity does not necessarily beget quality.”

“By consolidating a bit and having Marvel focus much more on their films, we believe it will result in better quality,” he said during an earnings call with analysts in May.

Anticipation was high for “The Fantastic Four,” and Disney went all out with the marketing. The company hired a skywriter to craft encircled 4’s in the sky near downtown Los Angeles on the day of the premiere and featured a drone show outside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion after the showing.

“While Marvel films have settled into a fairly predictable core audience after multiple under-cooked films and streaming series in the post-’Avengers: Endgame’ era, the brand remains sturdy when the right film comes along,” Shawn Robbins, director of movie analytics at Fandango and founder of site Box Office Theory, wrote in a weekend theatrical forecast published Wednesday.

Warner Bros.’ DC Studios’ “Superman” came in second at the box office this weekend with a domestic total of $24.9 million for a worldwide gross so far of $503 million.

Minutes into the first fight scene of the new “Captain America: Brave New World,” a foe quips that the Captain America he dreamed of killing was bigger than current mantle-holder Sam Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie.

The legacy of that patriotic moniker looms large over the film’s narrative — and is a central question for Marvel Studios’ overall franchise. How do you keep a beloved character, but reintroduce him on the big screen with a newer, though familiar, face?

It’s a billion-dollar question, particularly as Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel Studios looks to recapture the audience interest and box office revenue it reaped with the films leading up to the 2019 blockbuster “Avengers: Endgame.”

The answer is: very carefully.

Mackie’s character, Wilson, has been in the franchise for years as fellow hero Falcon, introduced in 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” After Chris Evans’ Captain America concluded his story in “Endgame,” he passed his shield to Mackie, who fully assumed his role as the new Cap in the 2021 Disney+ series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”

The stakes of getting the handoff right are high. Nate Moore, a producer on the film and a longtime Marvel executive, calls the character a “cornerstone franchise” of the Marvel universe.

“We want to make sure that this movie works because Captain America is so significant,” he said. “It’s important for audiences to feel like, even with all the change … there is still a Captain America, he is still worthy, and he’s still out there, protecting people.”

A Marvel Comics staple, Captain America debuted in 1940 as Steve Rogers, a “super-soldier” who was injected with a serum that enhanced his physical abilities. Evans first took on the role in 2011’s “Captain America: The First Avenger,” anchored two more Captain America films and became the counterweight to Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man.

But even as Evans’ portrayal ended, Marvel executives knew they wanted to maintain the spirit of what Captain America represented, Moore said.

“It’s always been about somebody who sees the dream of what America stands for and tries to embody that dream,” he said. “Even though we wanted to wrap up the story of Steve Rogers in ‘Endgame,’ we didn’t want there to be an absence of that feeling in the [Marvel Cinematic Universe].”

Maintaining that feeling — and character — is also crucial to the reconfiguration of the Marvel franchise, which has struggled in recent years to pump out consistent hits at the box office. Although last year’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” raked in more than a billion dollars, films such as 2023’s “The Marvels” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” received lackluster reviews and did poorly in theaters.

“Captain America: Brave New World,” which arrives in theaters Friday, is tracking for a projected $80-million to $95-million three-day opening weekend in the U.S. and Canada, on a reported $180-million budget before marketing costs. Reviews, however, have been decidedly mixed.

That range would be in the ballpark of domestic opening weekend totals for standalone Marvel films such as 2021”s “Eternals” ($71 million) and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” ($75 million) as well as “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” ($95 million).

The tracking is in line with the expectations for a restarted franchise, said Daniel Loria, senior vice president at Boxoffice Co., a theater data firm. Because Marvel is in a “rebuilding phase,” the financial prospects for the new film have to be “a little more grounded” for the studio, he said.

“We have to remind ourselves that Marvel is retooling with a new vision in some of these marquee properties,” Loria said.

With a subtitle that draws comparisons to Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel and Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” the film embraces the sense of a fresh start, director Julius Onah said.

“We are resetting the universe of the [Marvel franchise],” he said. “I’ve always liked the sense of irony that comes in those words, ‘brave new world.’ So we are leaning into that irony. We are leaning into the unknown and the uncertainty.”

However, as a result of the interconnected storylines throughout Marvel and its strategy of using its movies as building blocks, the film will have to hold up on its own. It also has to drive audience interest to the studio’s next release, “Thunderbolts,” which is set to come out in May.

A consistent string of Marvel hits is key to Disney’s overall ambitions and Chief Executive Bob Iger’s efforts to turn the company around. Marvel is the highest-grossing movie franchise in history, and the studio’s popularity powers not just box office revenue, but also theme park visits and attractions, merchandise sales and streaming subscriptions.

The move to keep Captain America in the mix but have a new actor portray him could allow the franchise to reset, said Lilly Goren, co-editor of the book “The Politics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe” and a professor of political science at Carroll University in Wisconsin.

A similar parallel exists with the three separate Spider-Man film series, in which the titular character is played by three actors, as well as the many reimaginings of Batman in the DC Comics film universe, though there’s less effort there at maintaining continuity and more focus on rebooting the series.

“It allows for the continuation of this popular cultural icon, while giving a lot of running room to redevelop the narratives around him,” Goren said. “It is a kind of reconfiguration of the superhero.”

That rethinking of Captain America is what attracted Onah to the project. Unlike Evans’ Captain America, who was essentially superhuman, Mackie’s character has no serum-enhanced abilities.

“It’s a wonderful way to evolve this character,” he said. “Part of what drew me to telling this story was a Captain America whose superpower is his empathy, his humanity. Not only is it something that is, I think, relatable in a very specific way, it’s something that is aspirational.”

There’s also special significance to Mackie, who is Black, now assuming the role of Captain America.

The implications of this were first explored in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” which takes place shortly after Mackie’s character accepted Captain America’s shield. The show delves into “what that means, quite frankly, for a Black man to be handed a mantle that can be problematic, but also can be really inspirational,” said Moore, the producer. “And I think the character’s journey in that show was, the inspiration is worth it.”

The significance of having a Black Captain America today is that “America is for everyone,” he said. “It’s important for the audience to see themselves reflected in the character, and that reflection is not only a skin color, but it’s also morality and integrity.”

Groot will ride on a gondola in Italy, climb a pyramid in Egypt and drive a double-decker bus in the United Kingdom in the new Marvel character overlay at Tokyo Disneyland that reimagines the classic It’s a Small World boat ride.

Groot and other Marvel characters will take over It’s a Small World at Tokyo Disneyland in Japan during a limited-time experience running from Wednesday, Jan. 15 through June 30.

There are no plans to bring Groot or other Marvel characters to the It’s a Small World attraction at Disneyland, according to Disneyland officials.

It’s a Small World with Groot at Tokyo Disneyland will find the extraterrestrial tree-like character from “Guardians of the Galaxy” joined by other doll-sized Marvel super heroes as they travel to Earth on vacation to visit destinations around the world.

ALSO SEE: Is Disneyland going to change the catchy song on It’s a Small World?

Riders will see several versions of Groot along with doll-sized versions of Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Mantis, Gamora, Thor, Ant-Man and the Wasp.

The Marvel overlay at Tokyo Disneyland reimagines It’s a Small World with the super heroes popping up in scenes throughout the dark ride – including Doctor Strange (India), Hulk (Greece), Captain Marvel (Mexico), Ms. Marvel (Egypt), Black Panther (Africa) and Captain America (Antarctica).

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An updated music loop featuring Marvel songs will play outside the attraction, according to WDW News Today.

Disneyland triggered an uproar among the passionate Disney fan community when Walt Disney Imagineering added 29 Disney characters to It’s a Small World in 2008 that launched a “Small World War” of protests.