The ice is cold, the desert is hot, and Marvel Studios is releasing films that have had number one at the box office during their opening weekend. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been chart-topping since the release of Jon Favreaus iron man in 2008, and while some of the films make more money than others, it’s consistent that every blockbuster becomes the biggest new release in theaters the moment it arrives. Taika Waititis Thor: Love and Thunder is the latest title to fit this pattern.
Check out the full top 10 from this past weekend below with the new Marvel movie sitting at the top, then join me for analysis afterwards!
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | Lw | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Thor: Love and Thunder | $143,000,000 | $143,000,000 | 4,375 | |
| 2. Minions: The Rise of Gru | $45,550,000 | $210,078,580 | 1 | 4,427 |
| 3. Top Gun: Maverick | $15,500,000 | $597,406,113 | 2 | 3,513 |
| 4.Elvis | $11,000,000 | $91,122,702 | 3 | 3,714 |
| 5. Jurassic World: Dominion | $8,410,000 | $350,325,830 | 4 | 3.251 |
| 6. The Black Telephone | $7,660,000 | $62,312,410 | 5 | 2,559 |
| 7th light year | $2,900,000 | $112,322,200 | 6 | 2,090 |
| 8. Marcel the shell with shoes on | $340,000 | $963,416 | 11 | 48 |
| 9. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | $262,000 | $411,062,441 | 9 | 140 |
| 10. Mr. Malcolm’s list | $245,416 | $1,638,979 | 7 | 1,057 |
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Marvel has another massive $100 million opening weekend hit with Thor: Love and Thunder
As I noted in my box office column last week, the summer of 2022 has been wonderful for the rejuvenating cinema industry, as four of the year’s five films that grossed nine figures in their opening weekend have been out since the first week of May. Thor: Love and Thunder is the latest title to be added to the list and the second from Marvel Studios following the release of Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
In total, Thor: Love and Thunder has only had the third-highest opening weekend of 2022 to date. The aforementioned Doctor Strange 2 surpassed it in May with a staggering $187.4 million, just trailing Colin Trevorrows Jurassic World: Dominion‘s $145.1 million as of early June, but the Chris Hemsworth film surpassed Matt Reeves’ total The Batman in March ($134 million) with estimated earnings of $143 million.
Thor: Love and Thunder is the fourteenth of 29 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to gross over $100 million at the box office in its first three days, and the third of six titles in the franchise to achieve this milestone since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic has ( the others are Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: No Way Home).
But during Thor: Love and ThunderMarvel’s box office numbers can be considered “normal”, the film is a huge win for individuals Thor Streak in that it’s the biggest opening weekend for any title in the run. The Previous Thor Movies Made A Lot Of Money In The First Three Days – Kenneth Branagh’s Thor In 2011, Alan Tayor earned $65.7 million Thor: The Dark World grossed $85.7 million, and Taika Waititi Thor: Ragnarok It earned $122.7 million — but the latest sequel has surpassed that number by over $20 million.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Thor: Love and Thunder has already gotten off to a thoroughly great start not only in the United States and Canada, but around the world. Trade says the Marvel feature has already grossed $302 million worldwide.
It’s not all profit since Thor: Love and Thunder was reportedly a very expensive film (Variety puts the production budget at around $250 million, and that’s a price tag that doesn’t include marketing or advertising costs). With other monetary considerations — like the percentage of ticket sales that go to exhibition partners and the money that goes to those contracted to earn points at the end — the new blockbuster probably isn’t quite profitable just yet, but it is so got off to a great start and it was a good runway to work with.
In recognition of Marvel’s power, Hollywood studios have pretty much completely cleared the runway this upcoming Friday to make this possible Thor: Love and Thunder Scope to dominate and is expected to continue raking in the money unhindered pending the arrival of Jordan Peele nope Middle of the month.
Minions: The Rise of Gru takes a big dip, but it still manages to hold onto second place
Executives at Universal Pictures must surely have known that Thor: Love and Thunder would take a sizeable bite out of the audience for Kyle Balda’s Minions: The Rise of Gru – and this reality is definitely reflected in the numbers in the table above. Illumination Entertainment’s production had a terrific opening weekend to kick off in July 2022, but its earnings shrank 57 percent from weekend to weekend.
The good news for animation is that 43 percent of $107 million is still quite a lot of money, and Minions: The Rise of Gru has grown domestically to a total of $210.1 million (already making it the fifth-highest domestic title of 2022).
Minions: The Rise of Gru also good internationally. Globally, the prequel sequel has grossed $303.8 million, which is good enough to make it the 10th highest-grossing blockbuster of the year so far (although that position is boosted thanks to the rapid success of Thor: Love and Thunder).
Considering global performance, Minions: The Rise of Gru still has a while to go if it’s to be considered the same ridiculous success as previous entries in the Despicable Me Franchise. The film is unlikely to surpass that of Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda minions or I – Despicable Me 3 (both have grossed over a billion each in their time on the big screen), but the new film has yet to gross about $144 million to match the earnings of Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud’s original Despicable Me (and that doesn’t take inflation into account).
Marcel The Shell with shoes crushes theatrical average
Earlier this year, box office forecasters were pleased to see the progress of Daniels’ Everything everywhere at once, which went from showing in 10 theaters across the United States to grossing $86.9 million at the worldwide box office. It was a massive win for the indie film and now it seems A24 is trying to make the lightning strike twice with Dean Fleischer-Camp’s absolutely adorable film Marcel wears the shell with shoes on.
As you can see from the box office charts, the live-action/stop-motion hybrid feature isn’t currently playing in many venues (48 nationwide) and doesn’t currently mix it up with the big blockbusters – but it did manage to climb to eighth place conquer, and that’s because the film is currently making $7,083 per location. That’s the third-highest total among titles in the top 10 this weekend, behind Thor: Love and Thunder and Minions: The Rise of Gru.
What turned out was average per theater, along with incredible enthusiasm Everything everywhere at once in the most surprising hit of the year and Marcel the shell with shoes on can hopefully follow the same path (although it’s certainly a harder version of the path, given the extreme box office competition. It currently has a 99 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, and if you need more reasons to check it out, you’ll find plenty to choose from of them in CinemaBlend’s review of the film.
As mentioned, we’re not exactly seeing the world’s most anticipated blockbusters in theaters next Friday, as the only new releases on the big screen will be animations by Rob Minkoff and Mark Koetsier Paws of Rage: The Legend of Hankand Anthony Fabian’s fashion-centric historical drama Mrs. Harris goes to Paris. Regardless, we should see some interesting reshuffles in the top 10, so be sure to head over to CinemaBlend here next Sunday for the full report.
To find out all about the road to cinemas for the remainder of the year, check out our 2022 film launch calendar.
