Not surprisingly, Thor topped the box office this weekend, earning an estimated $66 million from just under 4,000 domestic locations. Even less surprisingly, this was deemed a perfect occasion for headline writers across the country to unveil pound home their finest “hammer” pun. Here’s a small sampling (seriously, there were way more than this):
- Thor movie hammers US competition – BBC
- Box Office: Thor Hammers Out a Decent Summer Opening -FilmSchoolRejects
- Box office report: ‘Thor’ hammers out a $66 million opening -EntertainmentWeekly
- BOX OFFICE: Thor Hammers, Fast Five Slows Down, Women Go To Romcoms
-InsidePulse - Thor Hammers Competition with Mighty $66 Million Opening -Indiewire
- Box Office: ‘Thor’ hammers $25.7 million to reach no. 1 Friday -Hitfix
- ‘Thor’ hammers out superhero movie with humor -Fwdailynews
- ‘Thor’ hammers viewers with flashy 3-D effects -WashingtonTimes
- Thor Hammers Competition With $66 Million Opening -Business2Community
- Thor hammers home his power -FreeMalaysiaToday
- ‘Thor’ hammers competition with $66M opening -TheHindu
- ‘Thor’ hammers out $66M weekend -UPI
- Thor hammers home the fun -San Antonio Express
- ‘Thor’ hammers home the summer’s first comic book blockbuster -Frederick
NewsPost - Movie review: ‘Thor’ launches the summer movie season with a hammer
-SaltLakeTribune - Thor Hammers the Hype Machine – E! Online
- ‘Thor’s’ hammer lands in theaters with thud -Journal and Courier
- Weekend Receipts: Thor Hammers The Box Office Competition -Movieline
- “Thor” Hammers the Box Office -ComicBookResources
- ‘Thor’ hammers competition with $66M opening -8newsNow
- Thor Hammers The Box Office -Miami CBS Local
- Mächtiges vom Asgard-Krieger: Thors Hammer und mehr -Eibenwald
And my personal favorite:
- Explosion heard in Abbottabad…To higher ground…Thor hammers it
-9&10News
And that’s to say nothing of the “Thor pounds…” puns. WORDPLAY, MOTHERF*CKER! But don’t begrudge them their puns. If you work for E! or EntertainmentWeekly, that could be the most fun you have all week. This just in! An actor had a workout regimen for a movie!
| Film | Weekend | Per Screen | Total | ||
| 1 | Thor | $66,000,000 | $16,688 | $66,000,000 | |
| 2 | Fast Five | $32,500,00 (-62%) | $8,875 | $139,833,965 | |
| 3 | Jumping The Broom | $13,700,000 | $6,732 | $13,700,000 | |
| 4 | Something Borrowed |
$13,155,000 | $4,530 | $13,155,000 | |
| 5 | Rio | $8,200,000 (-45%) |
$2,517 | $114,902,068 | |
| 6 | Water For Elephants |
$5,600,000 (-40%) |
$2,142 | $41,613,617 | |
| 7 | Big Happy Family |
$3,900,000 (-60%) | $2,073 | $46,806,332 | |
| 8 | Prom | $2,425,000 (-49%) | $888 | $7,800,445 | |
| 9 | Soul Surfer | $2,100,000 (-38%) | $1,179 | $36,679,121 | |
| 10 | Hoodwinked 2 |
$1,880,000 (-54%) | $750 | $6,713,614 |
Thor did well, but not great (Fast Five opened with $83 million last week), which probably has something to do with no BASE jumping in the trailer and no over-the-top bad guy like Mickey Rourke with whips or parrots a codpiece that shoots ninja stars. Believe it or not, a movie about a space Viking with a magic hammer just wasn’t ridiculous enough for dumb people. But it was a decent movie that will easily earn back its budget, so no one’s crying.
The most amazing thing about this week’s box office is that it’s been eleven years since Almost Famous, and people are still going to see Kate Hudson movies. Here are the rottentomatoes ratings of Kate Hudson’s last 10 films: 16%, 6%, 56%, 37%, 11%, 14%, 11%, 21%, 23%, 37%. That’s worse than most child pornographers. Granted, Jumping the Broom out-earned Something Borrowed with an all-black cast and a fifth of the budget ($6.6 million vs $35 million), but $13.1 million for a Kate Hudson movie is still $13.1 million too much. Is she really worth it at this point? You could pick up some day laborers in the Home Depot parking lot and their rom-com would out earn Kate Hudson’s.
[via CHUD, BoxOfficeMojo]