Summary
The numbers are in, andThunderbolts*delivered an unsurprising opening. However, in the grand scheme of box office stats, the taste of these opening figures can be appropriately described as “bittersweet.”
Thunderboltsrode into theaters on May 2, flanked by a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (among the highest-rated movies in the MCU) and an A- on CinemaScore. Going in, the story about a Suicide Squad-like mash-up of antiheroes—Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan’ Bucky Barnes, David Harbour’s Red Guardian, Wyatt Russell’s John Walker, Hannah John-Kamen’s Ava Starr, Olga Kurylenko’s Taskmaster, and Lewis Pullman’s Sentry—was predicted to open between $70-75$ million domestically.ThunderboltsThursday preview numberssuggested an even bigger figure.
Thunderbolts*Opened With $76 Million Domestically At The Box Office
It’s Noble, But Still An All-Time Low Among MCU Summer Flicks
According toVariety,Thunderbolts*performed almost exactly in line with industry analysts’ projections, topping the North American box office charts with $76 million—$11.5 million of which came via Thursday previews—and leaving second-placeSinnerswith “just” $33 million. It’s an opening that parries well withShang-Chi and the Ten Rings($75 million) andEternals($71 million), both laden with mid-tier characters. However, it’s still the lowest ever summer kick-off for an MCU movie;Iron Mandid $98 million during the same period 17 years ago.
Thunderbolts*’sglobal tally stands at $162.1 million, with $86.1 million from international markets. Unsurprisingly, China is the film’s largest foreign market, accounting for over $10.4 million—including previews —with the United Kingdom ($7.7 million), Mexico ($7.3 million) trotting behind. Much likeThunderbolts*’s domestic story, there’s a “but” here. Per analystLuiz Fernando on X, the film’s pure three-day $5.6 million Chinese opener finished behind Studio Ghibli’s remastered re-release of the Japanese anime film,Princess Mononoke($6 million), and is the lowest ever for a comic book movie.
Any urge, no matter how tempting, to compareThunderbolts*’s opening weekend figures toDavid Ayer’sSuicide Squadmust be quelled. The latter film may have debuted with $133 million both domestically and overseas nine years ago—and that too without a Chinese release—but it was clad with an ensemble whose star power was potent enough to rival the Avengers. A film with characters such as the Joker & Harley Quinn and actors such as Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, & Viola Davis is a recipe for box office success. In the case ofThunderbolts*, only Sentry and The Winter Soldier could be considered A or B-tier figures… maybe U.S. Agent, if you’re feeling generous.
It goes without saying that the box office is a realm that favors marathon over sprint, which means that word-of-mouth is superior to fandom and star power.Thunderbolts*set Disney back $180 million and $100 million in production and marketing costs, respectively—a figure pessimists will be quick to quote when discussing profitability, but there’s a consensus among analysts that the one thing the film won’t be is a financial flop. Disney’s commercial hopes for Florence Pugh and her team are not as high as, say,Captain America: Brave New WorldorThe Fantastic Four: First Steps.
