Thor: Ragnarok Tracking for $100+ Million Opening, Domestically
Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok is expected to dominate the box office with a $100+ million opening.
Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie. Image via Collider
It is no secret that September and October have not produced much excitement at the box office, and the summer has been recorded as the lowest earning summer this decade. November promises a slew of films that should reinvigorate moviegoers.
Overall box office for the year-to-date is down nearly 5%, according to comScore, with “It” being the only title in recent months to perform over expectations. “It” was one of five films to open above $100 million, joining “Beauty and the Beast,” “Wonder Woman,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” and “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.”
The film was directed by Taika Waititi (What We Do In The Shadows) and scripted by Eric Pearson (Marvel One-Shots). Ragnarok is the third film in the Thor franchise, and is drastically different compared to Thor and Thor: The Dark World. Thor has always been a comedic character, Joss Whedon has utilized this aspect of the character quite effectively in the Avengers. This time Waititi, Pearson, and Marvel have doubled down on this.
Thor: Ragnarok promises to stand out from the superhero crowd, early reviews say that the film is full on comedy, which has started to become the norm for Marvel films. Marvel films have always been known or their lighter tone, and comedic elements, but the studio have recently been diving deeper into the comedy genre, which is evident in Phase 3. Ragnarok‘s light tone, bright colours, and promise of laughters are box office bait since the it makes it a four-quadrant movie. A four-quadrant movie appeals to the four major demographics; both male and female, and both over- and under-25s.
The $100+million opening is in line with the other 2017 Marvel Studio films, but does not exactly match up with the previous openings in the franchise. This year Spider-man: Homecoming opened with $117 million, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2 opened with $146 million. Thor opened with $65 million and The Dark World opened with $85 million. If Ragnarok is to be considered successful and improvement it should open north of $90 million. It would be a real triumph if the film opened bigger than the third entries in the Iron Man and Captain American franchises. Iron Man 3 opened with $174 million, and Civil War opened with $179 million. The latter was a bit of cheat since Captain America shared the screen with the Avengers.
Whether the $100+ million prediction is accurate or not Thor: Ragnarok will be making big business November 3rd. Be sure to get your tickets and get ready to join the Revengers!
Source: Variety.
