Weekend Box Office: Thor is Our Lord and Saviour

Thor Ragnarok Review
Ragnarok

The holiday season is fast approaching, and what better way to celebrate that than with Disney’s world supremacy?

In first place, Disney/Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok hammered $122.74 million from our sweet, sweet wallets – a massive +43.2% increase over 2013’s Thor: The Dark World ($85.74m debut), which itself was a +30.5% increase over 2011’s Thor ($65.72m debut). So that’s pretty cool.

Truth be told, Thor’s kind of a “lesser” in the MCU (or was, rather), with The Dark World’s $206.36m domestic haul ranking #12 out of 17 films. He was the blonde dude with bodacious abs. The walking L’Oreal commercial. Nothing that demanded rapturous box office numbers, no? Then the world discovered Chris Hemsworth is actually kind of hilarious and relatively eccentric New Zealander Taika Waititi nabbed the Ragnarok job. Throw in a dash of Guardians of the Galaxy-ness and there was an action-comedy spectacle waiting to break out. Hell, they even brought Hulk, Marvel’s “lessest” (bear with me here), along for the ride; 2008’s The Incredible Hulk stands as the lowest-grossing entry in the MCU to date with a $134.81m haul. We should commend all involved for taking these two characters and injecting them with newfound mainstream energy (the film even beat Spider-Man: Homecoming’s $117.03m debut).

Thor: Ragnarok still
© Walt Disney Pictures

Marvel movies typically average out with a 2.72x multiplier, which applied to Ragnarok gives it $334m. That could end up a tad higher, what with the holiday season approaching, though that’s dependent on whether audiences really take to Warner Bros./DC’s Justice League, Ragnarok’s biggest direct competition until Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi comes knocking.

Overseas, Thor: Ragnarok added $153.7 million in its second frame. International and global tallies are $308.38m and $431.13m, leaving Ragnarok just $18m away from eclipsing the first Thor. Ragnarok broke November records in China, grossing $55.6m, beating the total of The Dark World ($55.34m). Top five markets for Thor: Ragnarok outside of China are the U.K. ($27.2m), South Korea ($25.8m), Brazil ($19.3m), Australia ($15.5m), and France ($14.9m).

Debuting in second, STX’s A Bad Moms Christmas failed to capitalize on the breakout success of its predecessor, grossing $16.76 million from 3,615 venues. Bad Moms Christmas has grossed $21.29m over 5 days, below the opening weekend of last year’s Bad Moms ($23.82m). To be clear, this isn’t a disaster scenario – Christmas cost a responsible $28m to produce – although it’s indicative this isn’t a property folks were clamoring to see franchised. Or maybe they were, but the negative reception threw them off. Yet another question lost to the movie winds. Anyway, it’s apparent STX was hoping Bad Moms Christmas would hold screens through its title holiday, but after a soft debut that may prove easier said than done. Frankly, I have no heavenly idea why a distributor would move their Christmas film to the Wednesday a day after Halloween, but that’s just me. Alas, this ought to be good for $60m+ when all’s said and done, disappointing compared to the first flick’s $113.26m.

Bad Moms Christmas
© STX Entertainment

Overseas, A Bad Moms Christmas opened with $6.67 million from 15 markets, +13% ahead of the first film in the same territories. Global debut stands at $27.96m. The two major markets, the U.K. and Australia, grossed $2.4m and $3m, respectively.

Falling to third, Lionsgate’s Jigsaw unraveled with $6.56 million, a -60.6% collapse from its debut last weekend. If there’s any silver lining, this is the lowest second-weekend drop for the Saw series since 2006’s Saw III (-55.9%), though the movie’s $28.69m haul pretty much guarantees a place as the second-lowest grosser overall, behind 2010’s Saw 3D ($45.71m). Unless some divine horror entity spares it further collapses, I mean, but still. Overseas, Jigsaw collected $13.7 million from 62 markets for a $30.7m international cume. Global is $59.39m, not bad for a $10m film. Top markets for Jigsaw are the U.K. ($4.7m), Russia ($4.2m), Germany ($3.6m), Italy ($2.2m), and France ($1.9m).

© Lionsgate Films

In fourth, Lionsgate’s Boo 2! A Madea Halloween gathered $4.54 million in its third weekend, falling -54.8%. Domestic total is $42.85m. Boo 2’s post-Halloween drop fared a tiny bit better than the first Boo (-55.1%), but there’s still no chance in fat suit hell it matches Boo’s $73.21m final haul. As of this writing, Boo 2 stands as the lowest-grossing entry in Tyler Perry’s 8-film Madea series, with a small chance it stays that way. Not a terrible situation; these movies aren’t exactly expensive. Just don’t hold your head high for a Boo 3. There are no international numbers to report for Boo 2, though the film has tallied $382,583 from 4 overseas markets if you’re interested.

Rounding out the top five is Warner Bros.’ Geostorm with $3.19 million, declining -45.9% from last weekend. That brings the $120m disaster flick to a disastrous (…sorry) $28.93m haul after 17 days. Expect a final tally over/under $35m. Overseas has been kinder to Geostorm, where the film added $17.5 million from 65 markets. International and global totals are $154.3m and $183.23m. Geostorm’s top markets are China ($57.4m) and Russia ($9.7m), with decent openings from France ($1.6m) and Italy ($1m) this frame.

 

HOLDOVERS

Happy Death Day
© Universal Pictures

6. Happy Death Day (Universal) – $2.7 million (-46.8%), $52.85m cume
7. Blade Runner 2049 (Warner Bros.) – $2.32 million (-43.6%), $85.54m cume
8. Thank You for Your Service (Universal) – $2.21 million (-42.2%), $7.3m cume
9. Only the Brave (Sony) – $1.92 million (-45.2%), $15.3m cume
10. Let There Be Light (Atlas) – $1.7 million (-1.9%), $4.09m cume

NOTABLES
LBJ (Electric) – $1.11 million (NEW), 659 theatres ($1,685 avg.)
Lady Bird (A24) – $364,437 (NEW), 4 theatres ($91,109 avg.)
Last Flag Flying (Lionsgate) – $40,458 (NEW), 4 theatres ($10,140 avg.)
My Friend Dahmer (FilmRise) – $35,545 (NEW), 4 theatres ($8,886 avg.)

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