Disney’s ‘Thunderbolts’ rallies Marvel fans for a $76 million opening weekend
CNN
Marvel’s “Thunderbolts” electrified the box office, beating expectations with $76 million in domestic sales this weekend.
Marvel’s “Thunderbolts” electrified the box office, beating expectations with $76 million in domestic sales this weekend. While not the massive opening weekend numbers that Marvel movies once posted, “Thunderbolts” beat expectations by about 8% and “sets into motion” a new chapter for Marvel, says Paul Dergarabedian, a senior analyst at Comscore. “Between this, ‘Fantastic Four’ and then the other Marvel movies coming down the pipeline — particularly a year from now with ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ — Marvel’s set up for a real renaissance to get that Marvel magic going,” he told CNN. Disney’s first Marvel film of the year, “Captain America: Brave New World,” grossed roughly $88.5 million domestically during the first three days of Presidents Day weekend. Dergarabedian called Marvel a “good luck charm” for the summer movie season, which accounts for close to 40% of the full-year box office revenue, according to Comscore data. There wasn’t a Marvel film released in May 2024, Dergarabedian noted, and that in turn saw a slow start to the summer and record-low box office numbers on Memorial Day weekend. “This is not among the biggest superhero launches we’ve had in the history of the genre. In general, superheroes are not doing the kind of business they did before the pandemic,” said David A. Gross, who publishes FranchiseRe, a newsletter on the box office. But it’s still “a very good opening,” he noted.
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