'Thor: Love and Thunder' Takes on New Releases This Weekend
by EG
Several new releases hit theaters this weekend, but none of them is expected to challenge last week's top movie, Thor: Love and Thunder. The latest Marvel franchise installment is almost certain to repeat as box-office champ as it heads into a relatively slow part of the summer movie season. Read on for details.
Via Box Office Mojo.
After an early summer jam packed with major franchise titles, things begin to slow down this weekend. Over the past two and a half months we hadTop Gun: Maverick, Jurassic World Dominion, Lightyear, and Minions: The Rise of Gru all sandwiched in between two MCU films, but the current slate doesn’t have any franchise titles until October (Halloween Kills and Black Adam), and we may not see another $100+ million opening until November (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever). There are still some potentially big titles coming out over the rest of the summer, most notably the Jordan Peele directed Nope next weekend and the Brad Pitt starring Bullet Train on August 5th. However, there’s no doubt that the summer peaked early, and last weekend’s overall gross of $238 million, the year’s biggest thus far, won’t be topped at least until November. While there are no more summer tentpoles on the way, there are still plenty of films going wide, including three this weekend.
Despite all the newcomers, Thor: Love and Thunder will top the charts in its second weekend. Even with a large drop a la Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ 67% weekend two decline, we’re still looking at a $45+ million weekend for the MCU film, following its $144 million opening. Notably, Thor 4’s weekday numbers are holding up better than Doctor Strange 2’s. While Multiverse of Madness opened 30% better than Love and Thunder, the first Mondays were off by a much smaller degree, with Strange 2 ahead by just 11%. Thor 4’s $13.7 million grossing first Tuesday actually beat Strange 2’s $12.6 million first Tuesday, so it won’t be a surprise if the weekday trend keeps up and Thor 4 holds better than the previous (very front-loaded) MCU release. Both films received the same B+ CinemaScore and similar reviews (74% on Rotten Tomatoes for Strange 2, 67% for Thor 4).
The question is whether the film will be able to keep its lead over its predecessor Thor: Ragnarok, which had a lower opening ($123 million) and lower weekday grosses but was much better received (A CinemaScore, 93% on Rotten Tomatoes) and ultimately had a 2.56x multiplier. Ragnarok dropped 54% for a second weekend gross of $57 million and post second weekend cume of $212 million. Even with a large drop, Love and Thunder would still likely beat that ten day cume, but it could fall behind in the weeks ahead. With that said, if it matches Multiverse of Madness’ 2.19x multiplier, we’re looking at a finish of $315.7 million, just ahead of Ragnarok’s $315.1 million cume.
In second place, we will see Minions: The Rise of Gru, which is running incredibly close to the first Minions with a 12 day cume of $225 million compared to its predecessor’s $230 million. Minions dropped 54% in its third weekend, grossing $22.9 million, and a similar weekend three is expected of Rise of Gru.
In third place will either come Top Gun: Maverick, which just passed $600 million, or one of the two new studio releases. Paramount and Nickelodeon’s animated Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank is opening in 3,400 locations, with Thursday previews beginning at 3pm. Paws of Fury is an official remake of Blazing Saddles, transplanting Mel Brooks’ classic western-comedy to an imaginary animal-populated East where a dog (voiced by Michael Cera) learns the ways of the samurai from a cat sensei (Samuel L. Jackson) and protects a town of cats from an evil cat (Ricky Gervais) who plans to wipe the town out. The large voice cast also includes Mel Brooks, George Takei, Gabriel Iglesias, and Michelle Yeoh. Reviews for the Kung Fu Panda-esque toon are so-so (67% on Rotten Tomatoes), and the buzz is soft here, but the stakes are low for the $45 million budgeted film which Paramount picked up for $10 million. The film’s international rollout is happening piecemeal over the coming months.
Gte the rest of the story at Box Office Mojo.