Marvel's latest movie, "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," is on track to easily become the first major blockbuster of 2023 after securing more than $17 million in domestic previews on Thursday.

"It's easily going to be the number one movie in North America and the world," Box Office Guru founder and editor Gitesh Pandya told Yahoo Finance Live. "Part of that is because there's no competition. Part of that is because it's the biggest movie franchise out there."

"This is the Marvel Cinematic Universe," he added. "Every film is huge. This movie is a bit underwhelming. I didn't like it as much as some of the other films, and it's the third time around for 'Ant-Man,' so it's hard to have something new. ...But it is a built-in audience there. They'll come out big-time."

Box Office Pro estimates the film will secure between $95-$110 million over the long holiday weekend with Pandya adding "it could certainly, definitely break $100 million over four days — maybe get to $110 [million], possibly larger than that."

Still, lackluster reviews could be a possible headwind. The sequel boasts a current Rotten Tomatoes critic score of just 48% although the audience score is much higher at 84%.

'Hollywood banks on these superhero films'

"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" comes ahead of a slew of other action-packed titles set for release this year, including DC's "Shazam: Fury of the Gods," Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3," Sony's "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," among others.

"Hollywood banks on these superhero films," Pandya said. "People complain all the time about how there is too many superhero movies, too many comic book movies, but at the end of the year when you look at the top-grossing films, most of the top 10 has these kinds of movies. This is where people spend their money."