Thursday night audiences were treated to Disney’s Thor: Love and Thunder, which took in $29 million from 3 p.m. screenings, easily making it the second-best number for a 2022 pre-release behind Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of $36 Million Madness. And for those studios trying to increase their advance numbers with Tuesday or Wednesday showtimes, the money from Thor: Love and Thunder is pure Thursday night ticket sales. To take into account.
Thor: Love and Thunder’s previews are also the fifth-biggest for an MCU title behind Avengers: Endgame ($60 million), Spider-Man: No Way Home ($50 million), Avengers: Infinity War ($39 million) and Doctor Strange 2.
Estimates earlier this week had the Taika Waititi-directed fourth installment earning between $140M-$160M. Critics, though, were disappointed with Waititi’s reboot of the Marvel superhero with 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok (also the biggest opening and highest-grossing installment of the franchise with $122.7 million and a $315 million finish in the U.S. and Canada), deteriorated this contribution to 68% fresh. However, it is said that fans will still love Love and Thunder and will show up. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is 85% compared to Ragnarok’s 87%.
Given how MCU devotees show up on Thursday nights when it comes to a Marvel title, you always have to wait it out to see how much is front-loaded or if it lassos another ticket sales stratosphere. For example: even though Avengers: Age of Ultron had a lower preview number of $27.6 million than Doctor Strange 2 , it finished with a higher weekend gross of $191.2 million. The same goes for Black Panther , which did $25.2 million in Thursday night business for a three-day total of $202 million (of course, that was over the four-day President’s Day weekend). Still, look for Love and Thunder to easily give Oscar winner Waititi his biggest debut weekend yet.
Oh, and last night’s fourth quel gross is also double what Ragnarok earned from its previews, which was $14.5 million. Previews accounted for 31% of that film’s $46.4 million opening day.
In terms of pre-sales for Love and Thunder, the picture came in at $48 million, which, while behind Doctor Strange 2’s $85 million (that picture comes out of Spider-Man: No Way Home’s halo), is ahead of Jurassic’s $40 World Dominion M, Top Gun: Maverick’s $38 million and The Batman’s $42 million Thursday ahead of opening day. Currently, Doctor Strange 2 has the best opening of the year with $187.4 million, followed by Jurassic World: Dominion with $145 million. The latter pic earned just $18 million off combined Thursday night 4pm previews and previews from earlier in the week. Clearly, Love and Thunder’s weekend should top Dinosaur’s grosses.
“Minions: Rise of Gru” Universal
Meanwhile, Illumination/Universal’s Minions: The Rise of Gru had a fantastic week after its record-breaking four-day July 4 opening of $123 million. Each weekday has seen double-digit million grosses, with Thursday grossing $10.3 million, down 24% from Wednesday, for a first-week gross of $164.5 million. That’s just 1.1% behind 2015’s Minions.
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