There’s a reason Marvel can afford to make 13-episode series about characters I’ve never even heard of, they just keep making money. If felt like they pushed out Thor: The Dark World (my review) with half a script and a no-name director, but were having so much fun it didn’t matter, and now they’re sitting on $327 million in worldwide gross, including $86.1 million domestic this weekend. Marvel is owned by Disney, and it’s always nice to see a plucky upstart like Disney doing well.
Thor 2’s opening was up 31 percent from the first Thor movie, so hopefully they can continue this upward trajectory through to Thor 7: The Revenge of Ghostboner, when Chris Hemsworth is 53 and Disney controls the world’s banks.
Playing at 3,841 locations, the second follow-up to The Avengers opened to an estimated $86.1 million. That’s up 31 percent on the first Thor‘s $65.7 million, and is also the best start yet for a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie that doesn’t feature Iron Man.
In comparison, Iron Man 3‘s bump over Iron Man 2 was a bit better (36 percent), though it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. Iron Man 3 benefited from the addition of 3D premiums, whereas Thor: The Dark World actually had less 3D attendance than the original Thor (39 percent vs. 60 percent).
It is worth noting that Thor 2’s 3D figure (39 percent) is a bit of a disappointment. There was an expectation that Gravity helped improve audience perception of 3D, and Disney/Marvel attempted to piggyback on that by adding five minutes of April 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier in front of the 3D version of Thor 2. The unimpressive 3D share suggests moviegoers remain skeptical of the premium-priced format. [BoxOfficeMojo]
The market is actually responding rationally (a rarity in a business where Saw movies regularly earn 10 times their budget on opening weekend) to a format that doesn’t add value to most movies. Gravity makes sense in 3D. With Thor, people see it for what it is – a way to charge more. As theaters start earning less on 3D screen than what they could have on the same movie in 2D, maybe they’ll stop making these in 3D. That way I’ll be able to watch a long-haired viking God with a magic hammer fight a nocturnal space elf the way God intended, not wearing glasses like some nerd.
Thank goodness Last Vegas has earned its budget back, I’d hate to be deprived of more movies about old guys talking about their pills. Enders Game on the other hand….
[numbers via BoxOfficeMojo. Photo caption via Burnsy.]