Thor: Love and Thunder Scores Franchise Best Debut, Earns $143 Million in the Opening Weekend

Thor: Love and Thunder, the latest MCU film, has earned $143 million in its opening weekend in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday. This is the second Thor movie directed by Taika Waititi. It opened on 4.75 last weekend and topped the box office by bumping Minions: the Rise of Gru to the second spot. Including international showings that included the opening in 47b territories, Love and Thunder's global total has already reached $302 million.



The Thor franchise has performed well over the last few years and has grown with each subsequent film. The first film opened to $65.7 million in 2011, followed by The Dark World, which earned $85.7 million in 2013. Ragnarok earned $122.7 million in 2017. Waititi was the director of Ragnarok and is credited with rejuvenating the series and ensuring it has humor, irreverence and leans into larger-than-life metal aesthetics.

Love and Thunder got a good response from critics also. The reviews are mostly positive. The score at Rotten tomatoes is 68% fresh. Most of the audiences that gave the film a B+ Cinemascore were mostly male (about 60%). 53% were between the ages of 18 and 34, according to data captured in Exit polls. IMAX also reported that their screens generated $23 million of the global total.

The film stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Zeus, and Christian Bale. Portman plays the character of Jane Foster again and delights the fans by becoming the Mighty Thor in the film. Bale plays the villain of the film, Gorr, the God Butcher. The film had a production budget of $250 million. Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore, said, "It's another home run for Marvel. It's unheard of for a Marvel movie not to open at No. 1."



Still, Thor: Love and Thunder is not the biggest Marvel opening of the year. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is ahead as it debuted at $185 million in early May. Before that, Spider-Man: No Way Home did exceptionally well.

The summer 2022 box office is looking bright for filmmakers and theater owners. It is up by 217% from last summer. The year as a whole passed the $4 billion mark last week. It is up 233% from last year but is still behind the pre-pandemic box office year 2019 by 30%.

Dergarabedian stated, "Audiences are embracing the movie theater experience with greater enthusiasm. By now, every demographic is interested in going back to theaters. The challenge for theaters going forward is just having enough new movies."

The estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters were:



1.       "Thor: Love and Thunder"- $143 million

2.       "Minions: The Rise of Gru"- $45.6 million

3.       "Top Gun: Maverick"- $15.5 million

4.       "Elvis"- $11 million

5.       "Jurassic World: Dominion" - $8.4 million

6.       "The Black Phone" - $7.7 million

7.       "Lightyear" - $2.9 million

8.       "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" - $340,000

9.       "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" - $262,000

10.   "Mr. Malcolm's List" - $245,416

Sources:

https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2022-07-10/thor-love-and-thunder-scores-franchise-best-debut

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/thor-love-thunder-scores-franchise-best-debut-86561443

https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-north-america-taika-waititi-752841906c25a8655bdca6308eb9382f

 

 

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