Weekend projections: Thunderbolts lives up to expectations

The biggest franchise in movie history tops the box office chart yet again this weekend, with Thunderbolts* posting a very respectable $76 million on debut. While that’s technically in the lower half of the range of results for MCU movies on debut, it’s better than the debuts of Eternals and Shang-Chi (albeit by only a fraction in the latter case, and based only on the projected figure). While far short of the kind of weekends we saw during the golden era of Marvel, the domestic opening, plus $86.1 million internationally, takes the film to a health $162 million to date.

Here are the official studio projections for the three-day weekend (click the image for a full chart of all films reporting so far):

The biggest international territory for Thunderbolts* so far is China, with $10.4 million for the weekend. The United Kingdom ($7.7 million) and Mexico ($7.3 million) are also posting good numbers. No other territory has generated $5 million yet, though, a far cry from the kind of openings Marvel enjoyed a few years ago. The good news is that reviews and audience scores are high, suggesting the film can have good medium-term legs. A lack of competition between now and the arrival of Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning over Memorial Day weekend will help it along.

Overall, we’re looking at another strong weekend in theaters. The bad news is that the films playing now will largely have to carry the burden of sustaining the market for the next few weeks.

– Studio weekend projections

– All-time top-grossing movies in North America

– All-time top-grossing movies worldwide

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Bruce Nash, bruce.nash@the-numbers.com