'Eternals' opens with $71M but audience response is mixed

“Eternals,” one of Marvel’s most ambitious efforts to expand its superhero universe, arrived in theaters over the weekend with an estimated $71 million in ticket sales

NEW YORK -- “Eternals,” one of Marvel's most ambitious efforts to expand its superhero universe, arrived in theaters with about $71 million in ticket sales over the weekend, according to studio estimates.

By most studios' box-office standards, the opening was enviable. Only three other films have debuted better during the pandemic: “Black Widow” ($80.3 million), “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” ($75.3 million) and “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” ($90 million). But for Marvel's well-oiled blockbuster machine, the “Eternals” launch in some ways constituted a bump in the road in an unparalleled 26-film streak.

Going into the weekend, forecasts had been only slightly higher at about $75 million domestically. More concerning for the Walt Disney Co. was the mixed audience response to Chloé Zhao's 157-minute movie about an immortal race of superheroes. The film is the first in the Marvel “cinematic universe” to rank “rotten” in Rotten Tomatoes' aggregate critic score, with only 47% of reviews considered positive. Audiences also gave it a lower grade — a “B” CinemaScore — than any previous MCU entry.

But from the start, “Eternals” was a less charted direction for Marvel. By enlisting Zhao, whose “Nomadland” earlier this year won best picture and best director at the Academy Awards, the comic-book factory tapped a lauded filmmaker more associated with arthouse realism than computer-generated spectacle. The story, too, introduces a lesser-known alien class of superheroes, whose existence spans all of human history. With a teeming, diverse cast including Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie and Kumail Nanjiani, “Eternals” dared numerous introductions — including the MCU's first deaf superhero in Lauren Ridloff and the first superhero sex scene — not tried before in the franchise.