By Michaela Gordoni
Disney and Marvel’s THUNDERBOLTS* movie just made $76 million in its opening weekend, with an estimated $162.1 million globally.
“With the debut of THUNDERBOLTS*, May is shaping up to be one [of] the best on record,” said Comscore’s senior media analyst, Paul Dergarabedian.
After AVENGERS: ENDGAME opened at $357 million in 2019, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has struggled to keep up the momentum. THUNDERBOLTS*, which cost Marvel $180 million, is the 28th highest opening in Marvel’s history.
“Every franchise movie faces its share of tailwinds and headwinds, inherent and external factors that dictate what audience anticipation and response will be,” explained Shawn Robbins, the director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. “But there’s no doubt THUNDERBOLTS* is a moment worth a victory lap for Marvel after several years of wildly varying sentiment toward multiple films and streaming series.”
Though Marvel has had much better openings than $76 million — even CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD opened with $88.8 million domestically — Robbins says THUNDERBOLTS* is considered a success since nearly all the characters are unfamiliar to anyone “outside the core fanbase.”
“This is a very good opening for a new superhero story,” David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, told Variety. “It’s not in the upper echelon of all superhero launches, but it’s above average for the genre. And in this case, average is a big number.”
The Independent’s film critic Clarisse Loughrey said it is “the best Marvel movie in years.”
However, Movieguide®’s review noted that while there were some charming moral and redemptive elements, some parts of the story are not told clearly, and the ending is not explained very well. It also has some intense violence and many profanities and obscenities.
Some critics, like Empire’s John Nugent, didn’t paint the movie in a favorable light. He said that certain serious topics in the movie, such as domestic violence and suicide, were not “sensitively handled.”
As this movie marks a good turning point for Marvel, it will be interesting to see how its next release, FANTASTIC FOUR: THE FIRST STEPS, will fare. Time reported that one of the two post-credit scenes of THUNDERBOLTS* gives entrance to FANTASTIC FOUR, which comes out July 25.
Read Next: THUNDERBOLTS* Expected to Make Big Bucks at Opening Weekend Box Office
- Content: +1Share:
- Content: +1