Disney+ Viewers Roast Pedro Pascal as 2025's Most Searched Star Stumbles

Pedro Pascal keeps collecting franchises like they are loyalty cards, but his latest brush with the MCU just hit a bump on streaming. 'Fantastic Four: First Steps' finally landed on Disney+, and the early numbers are not the victory lap Marvel probably wanted.

The Disney+ debut: soft out of the gate

Per a Dec. 9 report pulled from Nielsen's independent measurement, 'Fantastic Four: First Steps' scored 4.9 million ECVs in its first five days on Disney+ in the U.S. Only. ECVs, by the way, are 'Equivalent Completed Views' — basically a standardized way of turning watch-time into full-view counts. Five-day windows are early reads, but they are how everyone compares these things.

Even with that caveat, 4.9 million is under other recent MCU launches on the platform. 'Thunderbolts*' — which took plenty of heat and didn't exactly set the box office on fire — did 5.5 million ECVs in its first five days. 'Captain America: Brave New World' cleared 6.4 million in the same window.

The Wednesday crowd: where it lands among MCU drops

Marvel has a habit of dropping big titles on Wednesdays. Stack 'First Steps' next to other midweek Disney+ debuts and the gap shows up fast (Nielsen first five days, U.S.):

• 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' — 14.1 million
• 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' — 10.9 million
• 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' — 9.7 million
• 'Eternals' — 9.2 million
• 'Captain America: Brave New World' — 6.4 million
• 'Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania' — 6.1 million
• 'Thunderbolts*' — 5.5 million
• 'The Marvels' — 5.3 million
• 'Black Widow' — 5.1 million
• 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' — 4.9 million

So... why the slump?

One obvious culprit: promotion. The Disney+ rollout was borderline invisible. Outside of a couple of social posts with posters, there was no real push — no cast doing the usual 'we're excited for the streaming debut' routine, no countdowns, nothing. For a brand as loaded as Marvel's first family, that's a strange choice.

Still charting

Despite the low ECV count, Nielsen's Top 10 movies chart has 'First Steps' in third place for that week, sitting just behind Netflix's 'Frankenstein' and 'KPop Demon Hunters'. Odd combo, but that is where the eyeballs went.

Streaming vs. theaters: two different stories

On streaming, the movie's first five days lagged 23% behind 'Captain America: Brave New World' and 10% behind 'Thunderbolts*' (per Comic Book Movie's read of the Nielsen data). Flip to the big screen and it is a different picture: 'First Steps' pulled in $521.9 million worldwide, which is 25% higher than 'Brave New World' at $415.1 million and 36% higher than 'Thunderbolts*' at $382.4 million.

Translation: audiences showed up in theaters, even if they are not racing to rewatch it on Disney+ right now.

What this means for the future

This is the part where I point out the obvious: the movie gave us Galactus, finally, on the big screen. That is the kind of swing built for theaters, and the box office backs it up. The Disney+ numbers are a bummer, but they are not a death sentence for a sequel. Expect the team to keep factoring into Marvel's plans on the other side of the next Avengers cycle — yes, including the 'Secret Wars' era stuff fans love to theorize about.

For what it is worth, Marvel has tagged the group to return in 'Avengers: Doomsday'. And if you missed it in theaters, 'Fantastic Four: First Steps' is streaming now on Disney+.

Oh, and because I know you are keeping score: Pedro Pascal really is everywhere right now — reportedly the most-searched actor of 2025 on Google — but even his current hot streak cannot make a quiet streaming rollout look loud.