'Thor: Ragnarok' Opens Even Bigger Than Expected
by EG
Thor: Ragnarok proved that there's still plenty of life left in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It might be time, however, to put the Bad Moms franchise to bed, given that the first sequel, A Bad Moms Christmas, had an extremely disappointing opening weekend. Overall, the first weekend in November was a weak one at the box office, with ticket sales that were down nearly ten percent from the same week last year.
In an era when many tentpole franchise installments have stalled, director Taika Waitii's Thor: Ragnarok is wielding nothing short of a golden hammer at the box office for Disney and Marvel Studios.
Over the weekend, the threequel opened to $121 million from 4,080 theaters in North America, 41 percent ahead of 2013's Thor: The Dark World ($85.7 million), not accounting for inflation. Overseas, the event pic grossed $151.4 million in its second weekend for a foreign tally of $306 million and a worldwide haul of $427 million. Thor: Ragnarok's $55.6 million China debut is a record for the month of November, while Imax theaters delivered a whopping $25.4 million globally.
Thor: Ragnarok — with Chris Hemsworth returning in the titular role and Cate Blanchett introduced as Hela, the Asgardian goddess of death — helped restored luster to the domestic box office after a miserable October, posting the fourth-best opening of the year to date and besting every other 2017 superhero tentpole outside of fellow Marvel title Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which earned $146.5 million. (Spider-Man: Homecoming debuted to $117 million, while Wonder Woman launched to $103.3 million.)
The secret to the movie's success? Thor: Ragnarok was no doubt boosted by Waititi's fresh vision and by featuring other characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, namely The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), who makes a cameo. It was the same strategy Marvel used in 2016 threequel Captain America: Civil War. And then there were Thor: Ragnarok's glowing reviews and an A CinemaScore. (It's the 13th consecutive MCU title to receive some variation of an A grade.)
"Because of the strength of the Marvel team, it affords the license to bring in storytellers that have the ability to infuse tone and style that keeps each of these films feeling unbelievably fresh," says Disney distribution chief Dave Hollis. "The $13 billion grossed by the 17 MCU titles averages out to $800 million per film globally. Just as impressive, if not more, is the consistency from a quality standpoint."
Roughly 42 percent of global ticket sales came from 3D screens, mostly from overseas and including Imax cinemas. (In the U.S., half of all Imax shows were in 2D, per the exhibitor's new strategy.)
Still, not even the god of thunder could stop the slide at the fall box office, at least not entirely.
Year over year, weekend revenue was down more than 9 percent as A Bad Moms Christmas bowed behind expectations and a crop of holdovers continued to underwhelm.
Read the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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