Is the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Trouble?

Thor: Love and Thunder was the top movie over the weekend, but the latest Marvel blockbuster saw a huge drop in ticket sales after its stellar debut. It's the second Marvel movie in a row, following Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, to falter after producing big numbers in its first weekend. Could this be a sign that Marvel's post-Avengers phase is in decline? Read on for details.

Via Box Office Mojo.

It’s another blowout this week as Thor: Love and Thunder brought in $46 million, trouncing the new competition in its second weekend and bringing its total to $233 million domestic and $498 million worldwide. While these are undoubtedly strong numbers, it isn’t all good news for the 29th MCU film, as its 68% drop was one of the steepest falls the franchise has seen. The ten day cume is still the best yet for a Thor solo film, but it seems that the relatively so-so word of mouth on this, as signified by its B+ CinemaScore compared to its predecessor Thor: Ragnarok’s, is hurting the box office (by comparison, Ragnarok, also directed by Taika Waititi, had a second weekend drop of 53.5%).

Are audiences tiring of the MCU brand? Thor 4 is the fourth film in the franchise to drop greater than 65% in its second weekend, and all four of those titles have been from roughly the past year (the others are Black Widow, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness). On top of that, the past year has seen many of the series’ worst received films. Of the four MCU films to fall under the A range from CinemaScore (Thor, Eternals, Doctor Strange 2, and Thor 4), three have been from the past year, as have three of the six MCU films to fall below 75% on Rotten Tomatoes (Strange 2, Thor 4, and Eternals).

While this trend isn’t encouraging, there’s little to suggest that MCU fever is flagging. Two of the large drops can be explained by extraneous circumstances, as Black Widow was also available on Disney+ and Spider-Man: No Way Home’s second weekend fell over Christmas, with its second Friday landing on the typically soft Christmas Eve. Beyond that, this summer’s two MCU films may have dropped larger than usual due to less than stellar word of mouth, but their huge openings suggest audiences are still clamoring for Avengers-adjacent content. Also, the recent large drops may be disappointing, but with Doctor Strange 2 finishing with nearly $1 billion and Thor 4 already halfway there in ten days, the franchise is evidently still on fire, even when the films are getting mixed responses.

In second place came Minions: The Rise of Gru, which took home a very solid $26 million in its third weekend, down only 44%. This is better than the first Minions, which dropped 53.5% in weekend three with a gross of $22.9 million. After spending its first two weeks slightly behind, Rise of Gru has finally caught up to its predecessor with $262.6 million, practically on par with Minions’ 17 day cume.

The weekend’s big box office surprise is Where the Crawdads Sing, which beat expectations for a $17 million debut in third place. Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and based on Delia Owens’ literary phenomenon which became one of the best selling novels of the past decade, the $24 million budgeted film from Sony and Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine was much better received by audiences (A- CinemaScore) than by critics (34% on Rotten Tomatoes). Women are flocking to the film, and if word of mouth can keep up then we could see it outperform The Girl on the Train. That thriller was similarly based on a massive bestseller and it opened to $24.5 million, and despite disappointing audiences (it received a B- CinemaScore) it still legged out to $75.4 million domestically and grossed $173 million worldwide. Crawdads’ international potential may not be as large, but the over-performing opening is giving us one of the summer’s few successful counter-programmers.

Get the rest of the story at Box Office Mojo.