Even as the grumblings that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is past its prime have gotten louder, the opening weekend of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” has shown that Hollywood’s top franchise is still a dependable hit machine. At the same time, the sub-$1 billion global totals MCU films have earned in the past year are likely to be the norm if the new movie’s poor Chinese launch is a sign of things to come.
How far “Ant-Man 3” goes over the next month will say a lot about Marvel’s ability to create charming superheroes that audiences want to see over and over again, regardless of critics’ reviews.