Thor Smashes Box Office Competition
Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World had a successful start last weekend (Nov. 8-10) with a first place take of $85.74 million. The Marvel superhero sequel starring Chris Hemsworth debuted in line with expectations. Thor: The Dark World opened 30.5 percent stronger than the $65.72 million start of 2011’s Thor. With only one new wide release scheduled for this coming weekend — Universal Pictures’ The Best Man Holiday — Thor: The Dark World could hold up relatively well, although competition will become much fiercer the following weekend when Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire debuts.
It was a tight race for second place between Paramount Pictures’ Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, Relativity Media’ s Free Birds and CBS Films’ Last Vegas. Bad Grandpa ultimately claimed second with $11.33 million, while Free Birds and Last Vegas followed closely behind with $11.11 million and $11.04 million respectively. All three held up well. Bad Grandpa was down 43 percent, Free Birds fell just 30 percent and Last Vegas dropped 32 percent. Respective total grosses stand at $78.77 million for Bad Grandpa in 17 days, at $33.47 million for Last Vegas in 10 days and Free Birds at $30.13 million in 10 days.
The weekend wasn’t as good for Lionsgate’s Ender’s Game. The previous top film was down four spots and a sharp 62 percent to land in fifth with $10.26 million. Ender’s Game took a big hit from the arrival of Thor: The Dark World, which had been widely expected. Ender’s Game has grossed $44.01 million in 10 days.
In its first weekend of wide release, Fox Searchlight’s 12 Years a Slave grossed $6.68 million to place in seventh. After a very strong hold the previous weekend, the awards season hopeful increased a 39 percent last weekend after expanding into an additional 734 locations. The 24-day take for 12 Years a Slave stands at $17.42 million.
Meanwhile, Universal Pictures’ About Time placed in ninth in its first weekend of wide release with an underwhelming $4.76 million. That represented a 342 percent increase over the previous weekend’s limited start (when the film was playing in just 175 locations). About Time has grossed $6.28 million in its first 10 days of release.
This Week | Last Week | Movie | Weekend Gross | Cumulative Gross | Weeks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | N/A | Thor: The Dark World | $85.7M | $85.7M | 1 |
2 | 2 | Jackass Presents: Bad Grampa | $11.3M | $78.8M | 3 |
3 | 4 | Free Birds | $11.1M | $30.1M | 2 |
4 | 3 | Last Vegas | $11.0M | $33.5M | 2 |
5 | 1 | Ender’s Game | $10.3M | $44.0M | 2 |
6 | 5 | Gravity/td> | $12.8M | $218.9M | 6 |
7 | N/A | 12 Years a Slave | $6.7M | $17.4M | 4 |
8 | 6 | Captain Phillips | $5.7M | $90.9M | 5 |
9 | N/A | About Time | $4.8M | $6.3M | 2 |
10 | 7 | Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 | $2.8M | $110.0M | 7 |
Editor-in-Chief Mark Heckathorn is a journalist, movie buff and foodie. He oversees DC on Heels editorial operations as well as strategic planning and staff development. Reach him with story ideas or suggestions at dcoheditor (at) gmail (dot) com.