Entertainment
No One Wanted To Pay For Marvel's Worst Movie Which Is Now A Streaming Hit
By Zack Zagranis
| Published
With all the talk of Marvel in decline, it’s easy to forget that the studio already hit its low point in 2023, and everything since has been an incremental improvement. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was Marvel’s biggest disappointment since the Spider-Man Clone Saga in the 90s (that’s a deep cut for all you old-school comic nerds out there) and had fans questioning if the House that Stark built was beginning to crumble.
The third Ant-Man movie was again helmed by Bring It On! director Peyton Reed based on a screenplay by Jeff Loveness. Reed teased that a third film in the Marvel franchise would explore the quantum realm during press for 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp. Both of the previous films had shown glimpses of the realm but only hinted at its true potential as a sci-fi action movie setting.
Shrinking Ant-Man To Nothing
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania follows superhero duo and romantic pairing Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne (played byPaul Rudd and Lost star Evangeline Lilly, respectively) as they get sucked into the quantum realm by Kang the Conqueror, played masterfully by Jonathan Majors. Along for the ride are Scott’s daughter Cassie, played by Kathryn Newton, and Hope’s parents, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet van Dyne (former Catwoman Michelle Pfeiffer).
Throughout their adventures in the quantum realm, a sort of Marvel version of the Star Wars galaxy that can only be reached by shrinking to sub-atomic size, the quintet comes across several interesting characters, including Bill Murray’s Lord Krylar and Corey Stoll’s M.O.D.O.K. Stoll, as many may remember, played Darren Cross (AKA Yellowjacket) in the first Ant-Man film.
Cross, thought to be destroyed at the end of the first movie, was instead transported to the quantum realm and transformed by Kang into a Mechanized Organism Designed Only For Killing. M.O.D.O.K. is essentially a giant head with a tiny body, forced to wear a hover helmet/chair in order to have any mobility.
Why Quantumania Failed
It all sounds like a fun, sci-fi romp on paper, but somehow didn’t translate well to the screen. Part of the blame can be placed on the shooting restrictions that came with the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to push things around and reschedule shootings. Meanwhile, the movie’s visual effects suffered thanks to another Marvel film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which stole most of the VFX workers that were supposed to be working on Ant-Man.
This led to substantial edits having to be made to Quantaumania so that scenes with unfinished VFX shots could be cut entirely. On top of that, the film made heavy use of Industrial Light & Magic’s StageCraft virtual production technology, the same equipment used in The Mandalorian and Thor: Love and Thunder. While the tech works fine with The Mandalorian, both Marvel movies ended up looking like a bunch of actors thrown into a PS4 game.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania cost an estimated $200 million to make and only grossed $476 million worldwide. While that seems like a pretty good haul (who doesn’t want to make double their budget?) it’s not as good as it looks. When the cost of advertising is factored in, along with the 50 percent of the profits that go to the theaters themselves, any profit Ant-Man 3 made was a pittance compared to some of the other Marvel blockbusters.
The Critical Destruction Of A Marvel Tentpole
If we’re being honest, however, the damage Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania did to Marvel’s reputation, their pride, and possibly even their future outweighs the money the film did or didn’t lose. The critical response to the film was largely negative, as evidenced by Quantumania‘s abysmal Rotten Tomatoes score of 47 percent. Audiences were slightly kinder, giving the movie a “B” on CinemaScore’s A+ to F scale.
The movie was the centerpiece of the first really serious think pieces about superhero fatigue, Marvel fatigue, and the just plain fatigue felt by the entire movie industry post-pandemic. Does the movie deserve all the crap it gets? The best way to answer that is to see for yourself. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is currently streaming on Disney+
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Entertainment
Logan Pauls hunt for a Pokémon card that doesnt exist, explained
It’s only been a few months since Logan Paul’s $16 million Pikachu Illustrator Pokémon card sale set a record, but he’s already on the hunt for something more valuable.
The controversial YouTuber-turned-WWE star released a one-hour mini-documentary on YouTube on Friday, chronicling his quest to acquire a card that doesn’t exist yet.
So what exactly is he trying to do, and why is the Pokémon card he’s trying to acquire potentially so valuable? Let’s break it down.
Which Pokémon card is Logan Paul trying to acquire?
In a nutshell, the origin of Pokémon cards can be dated back to 1996. Rather than being sold in packs, the first trading cards were available to peel from sheets found in a Japanese comic called CoroCoro. Pairs of cards were released over a number of issues, with the first – issue 223 – containing Pikachu and Jigglypuff cards.
The catch? Although there are many of these cards in circulation, there is apparently still no Pikachu that’s been graded a perfect 10 by the Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) body.
Mashable Trend Report
The video above chronicles Paul’s attempt to secure one, following him as he buys copies of CoroCoro 223 along with pre-production sheets of the cards that came with the issue, hoping to peel a Pikachu card that’s high enough quality to make the grade of Gem Mint 10 (categorised on PSA’s website as a “virtually perfect card”).
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When will we know if Logan Paul has acquired the PSA 10 Pikachu?
This is the big question. Normally getting cards graded with PSA takes time (from five to 25 business days), but in the documentary we see Paul getting two cards graded far more quickly after dropping them off at one of the PSA offices himself.
At the end of the video, he announces a live streaming event where he will peel the Pikachu card that he hopes to get graded a 10. What we don’t know is what will happen next. Will the event end with Paul showing the card off and getting ready to take it to PSA? Or does he have the kind of relationship with the authenticator where he’ll be able to organise for one of its graders to attend the event, and do the grading in person?
We’ll have to wait for the stream, which is happening July 30 at 9:30 p.m. EST on Paul’s YouTube channel, to find out.
UPDATE: Jul. 31, 2026, 2:45 p.m. Logan Paul completed his livestream on Thursday, peeling the Pikachu on YouTue — but based on the card’s centering, he doesn’t think it’ll achieve the PSA 10 grade needed to complete his mission.
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