Ranker Spotlight: Ant-Man

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 4 has come to a close after launching in July 2021. The first to feature both TV series and films, Phase 4 has included both smash successes like Loki and Shang-Chi and less universally beloved releases such as Black Widow and Eternals. As we’ve written recently, it’s been some time since Marvel has had something as massively popular as Spider-Man: No Way Home hit theaters, and it needs a hit to keep the post-Infinity Wars momentum going. The coming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will open Marvel’s Phase 5, and it could be the success the MCU needs right now — but it’s far from a given. 

Quantumania is currently #3 on The Most Anticipated Movies Of 2023 (7K votes), an enviable position to be in (though it should be noted the Top 2 are other superhero titles). Still, the previous two films centered on Scott Lang alter-ego Ant-Man were only modest successes in MCU terms, with the first Ant-Man making $519 million, and the follow-up, Ant-Man and the Wasp, banking $622 million. With Quantumania costing Marvel more than either previous film, and with the film officially opening Phase 5, the studio needs to do everything it can to ensure the threequel’s success. Doing that will require identifying and targeting people more likely to love Ant-Man in particular, and not just those who love the MCU.

How Ant-Man Ranks on Ranker

The rankings for Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man are consistent with the box-office performance of his movies. Sentiment for the superhero is fairly high, with 68% of the more than 17,000 votes cast for the character on lists across Ranker indicating positive feelings. But compared with the other superheroes in the MCU roster, Ant-Man is closer to the middle of the rankings than the top. 

The MCU list where Ant-Man ranks highest is The Luckiest Characters In The Marvel Cinematic Universe (5K votes), on which he’s ranked #1 — a bit of a backhanded compliment. He ranks #4 on Who Was The MVP Of Avengers: Endgame (14K votes), a more straightforwardly positive list, but one with fairly limited scope. On The Most Essential Avengers In The MCU, Lang/Ant-Man ranks at #10, which would be good news if there weren’t just 15 superheroes on the list. Similarly, Ant-Man is #11 of 16 heroes on Which Avengers Power Do You Want The Most (6K votes) and #13 of 20 on The Coolest Characters In The MCU (4K votes). Probably the most impressive ranking for the size-shifting superhero is his #13 spot on The Best Characters In The Marvel Cinematic Universe (903K votes), a list that features nearly 200 characters. 

Taken together, these rankings suggest that Ant-Man, while popular, is not a consistent favorite of the MCU fans who vote on these lists. To expand its reach beyond the large pool of MCU fans who may or may not head to theaters to see Quantumania, Marvel should consider trying to pull in people more likely to be fans of Ant-Man who are currently fans of other heroes, actors, and movies. 

What Do Ant-Man’s Fans Love?

Hundreds of thousands of votes have been cast for Ant-Man on some of Ranker’s most popular superhero and film character lists. What and who else do those fans vote for? Ranker Insights can tell us more about the likes and dislikes of those who love the MCU hero, and therefore, the people most likely to check out Quantumania. 

Other Characters

It will come as no shock to Marvel that the characters most likely to be beloved by Ant-Man fans are other Marvel superheroes — in particular, they’re 4X more likely to love Guardians of the Galaxy protagonist Star-Lord. But while Marvel is likely already targeting Guardians fans with ads promoting Quantumania, it likely isn't dedicating a lot of ad spend on fans of The Lord of the Rings. That’s a mistake, as Ranker Insights says fans of Paul Rudd’s character are 6X more likely to vote up evil wizard Sarumon on our list of The Best Movie Characters Of All Time — they’re 5X more likely to vote up Elrond and 3X more likely to vote up Samwise Gamgee on the same list.

Movies

Outside the MCU canon, fans of Ant-Man are also 4X more likely to vote up Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl on our list of The Best Movies Of All Time. Since that film is part of the same Disney media umbrella as the MCU, Marvel should hopefully already have a sense that these fans could be persuaded to see the latest Ant-Man film in theaters. More surprising films that Ant-Man fans tend to vote up include Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, the Oscar-nominated drama starring Daniel Day-Lewis, and Troy, the Iliad treatment that famously flopped at the box office in 2004. 

Actors

For those who love Paul Rudd’s superhero character, what other actors would they visit the theater to see in films? Insights says they tend to love plenty of actors who aren’t in superhero movies — at least not anymore. George Clooney, who came to regret playing the lead role in Batman and Robin, is 5X more likely to be upvoted by Ant-Man fans on The Best Actors In Film History, while Ryan Gosling is 4X more likely to be upvoted by them on the same list. Those who love Scott Lang are also more likely to vote up Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Cruise, and Colin Firth. 

These stories are crafted using Ranker Insights, which takes over one billion votes cast on Ranker.com and converts them into actionable psychographics about pop culture fans across the world. To learn more about how our Ranker Insights can be customized to serve your business needs, visit insights.ranker.com, or email us at insights@ranker.com.

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