Thor: Ragnarok Beats Newcomers for No. 1

Thor: Ragnarok electrified the box office for the second weekend in a row, beating out two newcomers to finish on top with $57.08 million.

Thor: Ragnarok led the box office for the second weekend with $57.08 million. (Photo: Disney Entertainment/Marvel)

Walt Disney Studios/Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok, starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo and Cate Blanchett is the latest superhero epic to power above the competition on the strength of the Marvel brand and critical raves, dropping just 53.4 percent from its opening weekend and giving it $212.07 million in just two weeks.

That is a better second-weekend performance than any other sequel in the Marvel Comics Universe franchise domestically, and it will easily surpass both Doctor Strange, which earned $232 million domestically, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which took in $259 million, by next weekend.

In second place, the Paramount Pictures’ comedy sequel Daddy’s Home 2 brought in $29.65 million in its opening weekend, significantly lower than the original film’s $38.7 million opening, but a triumph considering its abysmal critical reviews. That gross far exceeded predictions of $22 million for the follow-up, which added Mel Gibson and John Lithgow to the original cast of Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell.

Luckily for Paramount, audiences liked the follow-up much better than critics. This bodes well for the film’s long-term performance going into the holiday season.

Coming in just a hair short of Daddy’s Home 2 in third place was 20th Century Fox’s Murder on the Orient Express, which earned $28.68 million on the strength of a star-packed cast that includes Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley and Judi Dench.

Its lukewarm critics reviews likely held the film back from achieving a bigger number last weekend, but it performed well enough with adult audiences to serve as an example of successful counter-programming.

The performance of Daddy’s Home 2 is in some ways comparable to last weekend’s newcomer A Bad Moms Christmas, another comedy sequel that suffered a sizable opening-weekend drop from its previous installment. That film nevertheless held up very well in its second weekend, finishing in fourth place with $11.47 million.

It dropped 31.5 percent. While it certainly won’t reach the heights of its predecessor, which grossed over $113 million domestically by the end of its run, its performance last weekend suggests there is still some fans.

Among other holdovers, Lionsgate’s horror sequel/reboot Jigsaw finished in fifth with $3.42 million in its third weekend, bringing its domestic total to $34.36 million. While that puts it above franchise low point Saw VI, which earned only $27.6 million, it is likely to fall short of Saw 3D, which admittedly benefitted from 3D surcharges in its bloody crawl to $45.7 million domestically.

Meanwhile, Universal Pictures’ would-be awards player Thank You for Your Service dropped out of the Top 10 in just its third weekend, finishing the weekend with only $853,295.

One of the biggest stories this weekend happened further down the chart in the form of Lady Bird, the massive limited-release success story that continued its hefty performance with a successful second-week expansion. The Greta Gerwig-directed drama starring Saoirse Ronan grossed $1.20 million last weekend on just 37 screens, giving it a per-theater average of $32,426 and continuing its momentum as it moves into awards season. And Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri opened on four screens with a $322,168 haul and market-leading $80,542 per-screen average.

The top 10 films earned $137.87 million last weekend, 36.3 percent below the previous weekend’s $164.64 million. It was also 5.5 percent below the same weekend last year, when Doctor Strange led for the second weekend with $42.97 million.