‘Thor: Love And Thunder’ Gets Ready To Rumble With $300M Worldwide Opening
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In the wake of Universal/Illumination Entertainment’sMinions: The Rise of Grubeating its $80M four-day projection by 54%at $125M, tentpole fever at the domestic box office isn’t stopping asDisney/Marvel‘sThor: Loveand Thunderis looking at a$140M-$160M start in U.S./Canada and another$150M abroad for a global debut around$300M.
Oscar-winning filmmaker Taika Waititi — who reinvigorated the franchise with a sense of color and grand comedy, thus catapulting its grosses to the highest the franchise ever saw inThor:Ragnarok‘s $122.7M domestic opening, $315M stateside final and $854M global — is back in the director’s seat for Part 4. The edge this time,as first teased at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, is that Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster returns, becoming lady Thor. Oh, and the big bad guy is Gorr the Butcher, played byThe Dark Knight‘s Christian Bale in his MCU debut.
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So far, not the best reviews for a Marvel movie and not the worst for aThor movie at 71% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.Ragnarokpeaked at 93% certified fresh, while 2013’sThor: The Dark Worldbottomed out at 66% fresh. However, an interesting trend that’s been going on lately — in particular withRise of Gru and Jurassic World Dominion —is that sour RT scores haven’t weighed down on tentpoles’ opening weekends.
ShouldThor: Love and Thunder blow away its projections, it’s simply because word of mouth is hot and triggering walk-up business. While there are two notable movies left on the summer calendar — Universal’s Jordan Peele directed sci-fi thrillerNope(July 22) and Sony’s Brad Pitt action title Bullet Trainon Aug. 5 — you could sayThor: Love and Thunder is the last big deal of the summer in regards to $100M-plus domestic starts. Demo-wise, this one is in the vicinity ofGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,which opened to $146.5M in 2017.
One of the reasons why Thor: Love and Thunder is pacing behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is because the latter was working off the wholeSpider-Manmultiverse and Illuminati spoiler heat. As of Friday,Thor: Love and Thunder presales were trailing behind Doctor Strange 2‘s by 40%. Doctor Strange 2 had banked $49M in advance ticket sales a week before opening, a number which rose to $85M by its Thursday preview night before posting a 3-day of $187.4M.Thor 4‘s ticket sales are already ahead ofTop Gun: Maverick,The Batman and Jurassic World Dominion at the same point in time before their opening Friday.
Previews in the U.S. and Canada start at 3 p.m. Thursday. Thor: Love and Thunder will be booked at 4,300 theaters, including 400 Imax, 900 premium large format, 2,500 3D locations, 270 D-Box motion seats, and 70 ScreenX locations.
Internationally,Thor: Love and Thunder rolls into 47 material markets, repping 93% of the overseas footprint through Friday. Key markets to go on Wednesday include Germany, Korea, Australia and Italy, followed Thursday by the UK, Brazil and Mexico, with Japan and Spain on Friday. France goes next weekend timed to Bastille Day and to get away from the slew of holiday travel this coming weekend as many folks start to hit the road for the summer.
In like-for-likes and at today’s rates,Thor: Ragnarok did $124M, while pandemic comps includeThe Batman ($105M),Top Gun: Maverick ($115M) andJurassic World Dominion ($132M), noting that Japan has not yet opened on the latter.Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness benefited from theSpider-Man halo and did $245M overseas.
Ragnarok’s biggest offshore market ultimately was China, thoughLove and Thunder has not been dated there as yet (we understand it has been submitted). Rounding out the Top 5 were the UK, Korea, Brazil and Australia. Those four should again be in the Top 5 openers onLove and Thunder, likely along with Mexico.
In terms of global openings,Love and Thunder has its sights on scoring the No. 2 worldwide launch of 2022, behindDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness‘ $432.4M start.
Thorstar Chris Hemsworth and Waititi were in Sydney for the Oz premiere ofLove and Thunderon Monday last week.
Rise of Gru will have a steeper-than-expected second weekend due to those hefty $10.75M Thursday previews built into its Friday number; look for a -55% decline for a $48.1M 3-day.
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27 Comments
- Geral Edwin Chule
Try less than half that.
- Anonymous
The big news this week is Top Gun crossing $600m whooohooo!!!!
- Tom Cruise Forever
Bring back Maverick on PLFs and 4DX. Not interested in KING valkyrie
- Sad Marvel Fan
Give the MCU to Sony, Disney is ruining it with their awful TV shows!
- Sam Bival
Or you could just not watch the Disney Plus Marvel shows if you dislike them.
Personally, I am currently really enjoying Ms. Marvel, but if its not your thing, no biggie. If you don’t watch it, that doesn’t effect Love and Thunder. So what…really…is your problem?
- Anonymous
another anti Disney poster
- Anonymous
As long as Disney don’t dilute the MCU brand to made for TV, as they did with Pixar, this should do well to collect a sizeable box office takings. Thor is considered a higher grade character than Strange.
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