Thursday night, the audience made an appointment at Disney’s Thor: love and thunder, what took $29 million by Showtimes, which began at 3:00 p.m., making it by far the second best preview figure in 2022 behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness at $36 million. And for the studios trying to inflate their preview numbers with Tuesday or Wednesday night screenings, Thor: Love and Thunder’s money is pure Thursday night ticket sales. Note something.
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 -dollars) and Doctor Strange 2.
According to forecasts earlier this week, the fourth source, led by Taika Waititi, was making between $140 million and $160 million. Critics were overjoyed with Waititi’s 2017 reboot of the Marvel superhero Thor: Ragnarok (at 122.7 million, that rate at 68% fresh. That means fans will still love Love and Thunder and keep popping up. Rotten’s viewership rating Tomatoes is at 85% versus Ragnarok’s 87%.
Given the way the MCU supporters turn up Thursday night when it comes to a Marvel title, it’s always going to have to be seen how high it is or if it’s lassoing another stratosphere of ticket sales. For example: Although Avengers: Age of Ultron had a lower preview price of $27.6 million alongside Doctor Strange 2, it brought in a higher profit of $191.2 million over the weekend. The same goes for Black Panther, which grossed $25.2 million as of Thursday night and has grossed $202 million over three days (granted, that was over a four-day Presidents Day weekend). Still, look out for Love and Thunder to give Oscar winner Waititi his biggest opening weekend yet.
Oh, and last night’s Fourthquel gross is also double that of Ragnarok’s previews, which were $14.5 million. Previews accounted for 31% of this film’s $46.4 million opening day.
In terms of pre-sales, Love and Thunder’s picture came in at $48 million, which is behind Doctor Strange 2’s $85 million (the halo image from Spider-Man: No Way Home), but ahead of Jurassic World Dominion M’s $40, Top Gun: Mavericks’ $38 million, and The Batman’s $42 million on Thursday before opening day. Currently, Doctor Strange 2 has the best launch of the year at $187.4 million, followed by Jurassic World: Dominion at $145 million. The latter image brought in just $18 million when combined with Thursday night’s 4 p.m. preview and the previous week. It’s clear that the weekend of Love and Thunder has to top the dinosaur gross.
“Minions: The Rise of Gru” Universal
Meanwhile Illumination/Universal Minions: The Rise of Gru had a fantastic week following its four day record opening on July 4th $123 million. Tens of millions in revenue was generated every day of the week, starting Thursday $10.3Mdown 24% from Wednesday, for a first week gross of $164.5M. That’s just 1.1% behind the 2015 Minions.