Thor: Love and Thunder Scores Biggest Thor Opening with $143 Million, Minions: The Rise of Gru Surpasses $200 Million, Top Gun: Maverick Nears $600 Million
by Sam Mendelsohn - Box Office News
July 10, 2022


The summer hot streak continues this weekend with Thor: Love and Thunder, which easily took first place as it brought in $143 million in its debut, with $29 million of that coming from Thursday previews.

The Taika Waititi-directed superhero film, which opened in 4,375 theaters and got 36% of its gross from IMAX, PLF, 3D, and Motion screens, is the second MCU release of the year, and while the opening numbers aren't up there with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (still the year's biggest opening with $187 million), they are the biggest for the God of Thunder's solo films, beating Thor: Ragnarok by 16%.

This continues the trend of each Thor film being bigger than the last, at least in the opening weekend, and in the coming weeks we'll get a sense of whether it can maintain its pace to surpass Ragnarok's $315 million domestic and $854 million worldwide cumes.







Love and Thunder reunites Thor with his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster, after having sat the MCU out since 2013’s Thor: The Dark World, who has become the Mighty Thor, and they team up to stop Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) who, as his name indicates, seeks to destroy the gods. I

f there’s some bad news for the 29th MCU film’s overall box-office prospects, it is the world of mouth. Critics felt the film didn't live up to its predecessor, with its 68% Rotten Tomatoes score falling considerably short of Ragnarok's 93% (and becoming the fourth worst reviewed MCU title).

While these films are largely critic proof, it appears that audiences share the same disappointment here as they gave it a "B+" CinemaScore, making it one of only four MCU films to fall below the “A” range.







Of course, this isn’t to say Love and Thunder won’t become yet another major moneymaker for the studio, it just suggests it may not reach the $1+ billion highs we’ve seen from some recent MCU films.

Doctor Strange 2 received the same CinemaScore and similar reviews (74% on Rotten Tomatoes), and it has a 2.19x multiplier, compared to the 2.56x multiplier of Ragnarok. If Love and Thunder plays like Doctor Strange 2, we’re looking at a domestic gross of $313 million, which is practically on par with Ragnarok and would put it in the top ten for an MCU film not featuring Iron Man or Spider-Man.

On top of that, international is looking even stronger, and the film is running 29% ahead of Ragnarok on a like-for-like basis for a global debut of $302 million, though the lack of a China release for Love and Thunder may make it tough to top that earlier installment. That said, Disney is predicting the film plays long through the second half of the summer, and it has the advantage of being the final major tentpole of the season.







Second place went comfortably to Minions: The Rise of Gru with $45.6 million, dropping 57.4% after its record breaking Fourth of July long weekend and bringing its total to $210 million.

The latest installment in Univeral’s $4+ billion grossing animated franchise is falling a bit behind the first Minions, which dropped 57% in its second weekend when it grossed $49.3 million for a cume of $216 million.

Internationally Minions 2 is playing like Despicable Me 3, which made $770 million in the overseas markets, and the global cume on Minions 2 is currently at $400 million.







In third place is Top Gun: Maverick which dropped 40% for a $15.5 million weekend. If the actuals hold up, this gives Maverick the biggest ever seventh wide weekend for a non-James Cameron movie.

Tom Cruise’s box office phenomenon now has a domestic cume of $597 million, putting it a day or two away from the $600 million milestone and a week or two away from entering the top ten at the all-time domestic box office.

Its global cume is now $1.184 billion.







Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis came in fourth place with $11 million bringing its cume to $91 million, and it will soon become Luhrmann’s second movie to cross $100 million.

While Elvis is relatively U.S. heavy, its global cume has reached $155 million.







Jurassic World Dominion came in fifth place with an additional $8.4 million, bumping its total to $350 million.

This is $34 million behind Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom after its fifth weekend, but at $876 million globally Dominion is undoubtedly a big success.







Also of note in the top ten is The Black Phone, in sixth place with $7.7 million, bringing its total to $62 million.

Scott Derrickson’s acclaimed chiller is the top grossing non-sequel horror film since the start of the pandemic.







Notable in the specialty box office is A24’s Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, which added 26 theaters for 48 total and took home $340k for a $963k cume, just shy of a million.

The animated mockumentary goes wide next week.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/article/ed3127968772/?ref_=bo_hm_hp







July 8-10, 2022: Weekend Studio Estimates

1. Thor: Love and Thunder $143,000,000
2. Minions: The Rise of Gru $15,499,887 / $210,079,000
3. Top Gun: Maverick $15,499,887 / $597,406,000
4. Elvis $11,000,298 / $91,123,000
5. Jurassic World Dominion $8,410,170 / $350,326,000
6. The Black Phone $7,659,590 / $62,312,000
7. Lightyear $2,900,000 / $112,322,200
8. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On $340,000 / $963,416
9. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness $262,000 / $411,062,441
10. Mr. Malcolm's List $245,416 / $1,638,979

When it comes to movie franchises you can easily spot if a hit movie will have a sequel just because it is a huge monster hit that like a plant in a garden it will grow and grow until it's large. With Thor this same formula has worked and like many of the Marvel movies they all seem to be the start of a beginning of a successful franchise like chapters of a book. With Thor Love And Thunder I think Marvel has big high hopes that this new Thor movie will score a huge following. Because Marvel movies are famous for adding new characters and introducing old favorite characters to new fans that's what really makes the film do well. In this case the two characters that steal the show are Thor's goats and even before the movie was released these characters have become so popular it's funny because you see Toothgrinder and Toothgnasher on anything from clothing to plushies and just like Rocket and Groot from Guardians Of The Galaxy became popular these characters will be more popular. Why I also think the film will be a hit is because Star Lord Groot and Rocket will return in the movie which is funny because the I Am Groot cartoon shorts are debuting next month so this movie is a perfect way to promote Groot. What's next in the Thor soup? A TV series perhaps
Bestie

Thor: Love and Thunder Falls 68% in Second Weekend, Where the Crawdads Sing Beats Expectations with $17M Opening, Paws of Fury Fails to Draw Family Audiences Away from Minions 2
by Sam Mendelsohn - Box Office News
July 17, 2022


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: Love and Thunder 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: Love and Thunder), three have been from the past year, as have three of the six MCU films to fall below 75% on Rotten Tomatoes.







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, The 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.







In fourth place came Top Gun: Maverick with an additional $12 million, dropping 23% in its eighth weekend and bringing its total to $618 million domestic and $1.237 billion worldwide.

It is now days away from entering the top ten of all time domestic box office, and over the rest of the summer we’ll see how far up the list it can fly.







Elvis came in fifth place in its fourth weekend with $7.6 million.

Now at $106 million, the WB film is the year’s biggest adult-led non-franchise film.







Just outside the top five, newcomer Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank has failed to hit its target.

The animated Blazing Saddles remake (by way of Kung Fu Panda) grossed just $6.3 million, below the already low expectations.







Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris debuted in ninth place on 980 screens with $1.9 million, and it is on track to become Focus Features’ third biggest film of the year after Downton Abbey: A New Era and The Northman.

The film tells the tale of a maid in 1950s London who goes to Paris to buy a Dior dress that she has become obsessed with. It has charmed critics (93% on Rotten Tomatoes), and its older women demo doesn’t have much geared towards it in the coming weeks, so it has a good chance of growing from here.







Falling just outside the top ten in 11th place is Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, which expanded from 48 to 153 theaters and grossed $575k.

With a cume of $1.7 million, the partly stop-motion mockumentary is one of the year’s most successful arthouse titles (in addition to being one of the year’s best reviewed films at 99% on Rotten Tomatoes), and A24 plans to continue its expansion throughout the summer.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/article/ed3094414340/?ref_=bo_hm_hp







July 15-17, 2022: Weekend Studio Estimates

1. Thor: Love and Thunder $46,000,000 / $233,271,136
2. Minions: The Rise of Gru $26,000,495 / $262,568,000
3. Where the Crawdads Sing $17,000,000
4. Top Gun: Maverick $12,000,000 / $617,962,568
5. Elvis $7,600,000 / $106,200,000
6. Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank $6,250,000
7. The Black Phone $5,310,000 / $72,046,175
8. Jurassic World Dominion $4,950,000 / $359,709,000
9. Mrs Harris Goes to Paris $1,900,000
10. Lightyear $1,300,000 / $115,498,750