Thor: Ragnarok Hammers Its Way to the Top
It wasn’t a “low-key” weekend at the box office as Disney and Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok opened with $122 .74 million, by far the best opening of the three Thor films.
This much-needed boost starts November off strong, after Hollywood posted its lowest-grossing October since 2007.
Thor: Ragnarok debuted 41 percent higher than previous installment Thor: The Dark World and 84 percent above the original Thor.
Among superhero movies this year, Ragnarok opened 3 percent higher than Spider-Man: Homecoming and 17 percent above Wonder Woman. However, it did debut 17 percent below Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
The audience was 56 percent male and only 16 percent age 16 or under. That is an unusually older audience for the superhero genre, which usually attracts a larger percentage of children and teenagers, indicating this film was able to get more adults into theaters than usual.
The Ragnarok sequel brought back Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston from the previous installments, while also adding Mark Ruffalo and Cate Blanchett.
STX’s R-rated holiday comedy A Bad Moms Christmas debuted in second place with $16.76 million.
After opening mid-week last Wednesday, it has now earned $21.29 million total through its first five days. The sequel has earned 9 percent less through its first five days than the original Bad Moms did in its first three days. It also starts below other R-rated comedies this year including Girls Trip and Baywatch.
However, with what the studio calls an “efficient” budget of $28 million, when factoring in international grosses the film has already exceeded its production cost. So this may be a mild win for STX after all.
Last weekend’s leader, Lionsgate Entertainment’s horror Jigsaw, fell to third place with $6.56 million. Its 60.6 percent drop was to be expected considering the Halloween holiday is now past.
Fellow horror films Boo 2! A Madea Halloween took fourth place with $4.54 million, down 54.8 percent, while Happy Death Day took sixth place with $2.70 million, down 46.8 percent.
The top 10 films earned $164.64 million last weekend, 184.4 percent above the previous weekend’s $57.89 million. But it was 8.9 percent below the same weekend last year, when Doctor Strange opened with $85.06 million along with Trolls and Hacksaw Ridge. The year-to-date box office is 5.0 percent behind last year.
This Week | Last Week | Movie | Weekend Gross | Cumulative Gross | Weeks |
1 | New | Thor: Ragnarok | $122.74M | $122.74M | 1 |
2 | New | A Bad Moms Christmas | $16.76M | $21.29M | 1 |
3 | 1 | Jigsaw | $6.56M | $28.69M | 2 |
4 | 2 | Boo 2! A Madea Halloween | $4.54M | $52.85M | 3 |
5 | 3 | Geostorm | $3.19M | $28.93M | 3 |
6 | 4 | Happy Death Day | $2.70M | $53.85M | 4 |
7 | 5 | Blade Runner 2049 | $2.32M | $85.54M | 5 |
8 | 6 | Thank You for Your Service | $2.21M | $7.30M | 2 |
9 | 7 | Only the Brave | $1.92M | $15.30M | 3 |
10 | 11 | Let There Be Light | $1.70M | $4.09M | 2 |
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.