Marvel’s Thunderbolts* movie is continuing its success in the United States and around the world. The movie remains at the top of the box office charts and recently passed a major milestone.
Variety reports that the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie added an impressive $9 million to its domestic box office revenue on Friday, pushing it over the $100 million mark in North America, with a projected $130+ million expected by the end of the weekend. It’s around a 53% fall from its opening weekend, which shows that Thunderbolts* is performing much better than Captain America: Brave New World, which dropped 68% this February.
As Thunderbolts* continues its stronghold at the box office, it’s pulling ahead of some stiff competition. Sinners, which is Black Panther director Ryan Coogler’s original horror film, added another $6.5 million on Friday and is expected to surpass $200 million domestically over the weekend. A Minecraft Movie came in third place, up another $1.9 million and still pulling in an impressive number of viewers in its sixth weekend. It is soon set to surpass $900 million worldwide.
Thunderbolts‘ early success at the box office looks good for the MCU, with the superhero media franchise looking to ramp up its action even further this summer. This July, The Fantastic Four: First Steps will hit theaters, ushering in Phase Six of the MCU and setting up the action for the highly-anticipated Avengers: Doomsday movie, which the Thunderbolts* characters are already confirmed to be returning in.
As more audiences continue to see Thunderbolts*, it becomes more likely that the film will become profitable for the MCU. With a high-profile ensemble cast including Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Gerladine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, Wendell Pierce, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Thunderbolts* commanded a $180 million production budget, with another $100 million estimated in marketing costs — meaning the film still has a ways to go before it’s a box-office smash.
Marvel's Clever Marketing Plans for Thunderbolts* is Paying Off
Both critical reception and fan reactions to Thunderbolts* have been positive, but Marvel’s marketing approach to the movie is also likely to be part of the reason for the film’s continued box-office success. After the film hit theaters, the movie’s director, Jake Schear, and Avengers: Doomsday filmmakers, the Russo Bros., both capitalized on Doomsday‘s hype by promoting that one of Thunderbolts‘ post-credits scenes was actually filmed on the set of the upcoming Avengers flick.
Following the film’s opening weekend, Marvel Studios also began marketing the movie with a new title, calling it The New Avengers, falling in line with the film’s ending scene. All of this, coupled with the fact that the Doomsday-filmed post-credit scene also teases the arrival of The Fantastic Four in the Marvel Cinematic Universe certainly got audiences talking and heading out to the theaters.
Thunderbolts* is now playing in theaters worldwide.
