Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder managed to fend off three new domestic releases to remain the No. 1 film in North America.
Although ticket sales for “Thor” collapsed in its second weekend, falling 68% to $46 million from 4,375 theaters, the latest installment of Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe easily prevailed over a trio of newcomers: Sony’s literary adaptation ” Where the Crawdads Sing,” Paramount’s animated feature “Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank” and Focus Features’ period drama “Mrs. Harris goes to Paris. After 10 days on the big screen, Love and Thunder has generated a significant $232 million at the box office and $497.9 million worldwide.
For Thor, the fourth superhero adventure that stars Chris Hemsworth as the Asgardian god with unrelenting abs, the concerning 68% drop is a signal that the film isn’t reaching beyond the (albeit very large) fanbase of the comic book empire. While Love and Thunder is sure to end the box office run with a solid amount, it’s not ideal for a film of its size and scope to lose such a significant portion of its audience so quickly after its opening weekend. It’s one of the biggest second-weekend drops in MCU history after May’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , which fell 67% in its second outing. (Disney’s sequel “Weird” still earned a cool $411 million domestically). In comparison, recent Marvel entries managed to do better with “Eternals” down 61% and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” down 52%.
Among newcomers, “Where the Crawdads Sing” easily scored the best start. The page-to-screen adaptation debuted in third place with a better-than-expected $17 million from 3,650 theaters. It’s an impressive start for this type of film, especially at a time when television has become a haven for literary darlings. And Sony only spent $24 million to produce the film, so it won’t be impossible to turn a profit.
“In recent years, dramas of any kind have been a working genre,” said David A. Gross, who heads the film consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “But attendance patterns have changed and most of these stories are now being produced for the small screen. That makes this opening particularly good.”
Critics and audiences had quite mixed reactions to “Where the Crawdads Sing,” which holds a dismal 36% on Rotten Tomatoes but a solid “A-” CinemaScore from moviegoers. With positive word of mouth, the film has the potential to stand out to people unfamiliar with Delia Owens’ best-selling book.
Olivia Newman directed “Crawdads,” which centers on a young girl named Kia (Daisy Edgar-Jones of “Normal People” and “Fresh”) who grows up alone in a swamp in North Carolina and is later embroiled in a trial for killing a former love interest. Reese Witherspoon produced the film, which features a new song from Taylor Swift called “Carolina.”
Paws of Fury, on the other hand, failed to live up to $10 million expectations. The family film, which took inspiration from Mel Brooks’ 1974 film “Blazing Saddles,” lands at No. 6 with a dismal $6.25 million from 3,475 North American locations. It’s a rare blip in 2022 for Paramount, which has otherwise enjoyed stellar box office with “The Lost City,” “Scream,” “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” and, of course, “Top Gun: Maverick.” Fortunately, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Animation don’t have too much on the line, as Paws of Fury only cost $10 million to acquire.
Although ticket buyers seemed to like “Paws of Fury,” which scored an “A-” CinemaScore, the film struggled to hold its own against Universal and Illumination’s “Minions: Rise of Gru,” which landed in second place on the box office charts with $26 million from 4,114 theaters. After three weeks in release, the Minions sequel remains the de facto choice for family audiences with $262 million domestically to date. The film generated another $270 million at the international box office, bringing its global cume to $532.7 million.
The latest newcomer for the weekend “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” opened in ninth place, generating $1.9 million from 980 theaters. The well-reviewed period drama aims to serve as a counterpoint to this summer’s biggest blockbusters. As expected, the opening weekend audience consisted mostly of older women, with 81% of ticket buyers over the age of 30 and 71% female.
eOne financed “Mrs. Harris,” starring Leslie Manville (“Phantom Thread”) as a widowed cleaner who travels to the City of Love in search of the perfect Dior dress.
Elsewhere on the country’s box office charts, “Top Gun: Maverick” took fourth place, scoring $12 million from 3,292 screens. In its eighth weekend of release, ticket sales fell just 23%. With $617 million in the bank and no signs of slowing down, “Top Gun: Maverick” will soon overtake “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” ($620 million) and “The Avengers” ($623 million) to break into the top 10 highest-grossing films in domestic box office history. There’s a good chance Tom Cruise’s latest has enough fuel in its engine to close in on spots seven and eight, held by Jurassic World with $653 million and Titanic with $659 million.
Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis rounded out the top five with $7.6 million from 3,305 locations. The Warner Bros. film, which follows Elvis Presley’s rise to the King of Rock and Roll, has grossed $106 million to date, an impressive amount for a music biopic. Worldwide, the film has earned $185.6 million so far. “Elvis” cost $85 million to produce, so it’s still not completely out of the red.
On the indie scene, A24 charmer Marcel the Shell With Shoes On brought in $575,370 as the film expanded to 153 theaters. The film, about a flexible, inch-tall clam (voiced by Jenny Slate), has generated $1.69 million as it slowly rolls out in the U.S.
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