Marvel’s “Thunderbolts*” will easily top the weekend box office after cracking a $31.5 million gross across Friday and preview screenings from 4,330 theaters. That puts the ensemble action piece, which follows a ragtag team-up of Marvel’s least superpowered personalities, on pace to land within projections for a domestic opening between $70 million and $75 million. The movie also gets a boost in grosses from Imax and other premium-large format auditoriums.
It’d be a sizable start for what could be described as a new franchise (though most of the “Thunderbolts*” heroes have already debuted in other Marvel Cinematic Universe entries). But it does demonstrate Marvel Studios‘ diminished event status at the box office. Should projections hold, the new release will land one of the lower openings of the MCU. It’ll also likely fall below the opening of “Black Widow” ($80 million), which starred original Avenger Scarlett Johansson and introduced “Thunderbolts*” stars Florence Pugh and David Harbour, as well as “Guardians of the Galaxy” ($94 million), another comedy-skewing ensemble that introduced moviegoers to a team of misfit heroes.
In terms of recent comps, “Thunderbolts*” is pacing behind Disney’s previous Marvel outing, “Captain America: Brave New World,” which flew to a $40.9 million opening day back in February, on its way to an $88 million three-day. That movie had more brand recognition with the “Captain America” moniker, but also bad reviews and a rough reception among fans. It finished its run with a meagre 2.2x multiplier, ending up at $200 million in North America.
The hope for Marvel is that “Thunderbolts*” may open smaller, but will hold much stronger. The comic book brand drew some of its most positive reviews in some time for this new entry. Audiences are positive too, with moviegoer pollster Cinema Score turning in an “A-” grade — compare that to the MCU-low “B-” earned by “Brave New World.” At a production cost of $180 million, plus another $100 million to market and distribute, “Thunderbolts*” needs to resonate globally and show significant staying power to turn a profit theatrically.
Along with Pugh and Harbour, “Thunderbolts*” also stars Marvel stalwart Sebastian Stan, as well as Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen, Lewis Pullman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Jake Schreier directs.
Falling to second place, “Sinners” had another great hold on Friday, adding another $9.5 million, down just 27% from its daily total a week ago. The Warner Bros. film lost Imax and most premium large-format auditoriums to “Thunderbolts*” this weekend (though it will return to select Imax locations in mid-May). But even losing that revenue boost from luxury tickets, some rivals have the movie falling just 25% in its third weekend.
Ryan Coogler’s vampire thriller has shown some historic staying power since debuting two weeks ago, already more than tripling its $48 million opening weekend. At this pace, “Sinners” will soon pass up “Captain America: Brave New World” to become the second-highest grossing North American release of 2025.
Warner Bros. also gets third place with “A Minecraft Movie,” still drawing a crowd in its fifth weekend of release. The Legendary Entertainment production earned another $3.1 million on Friday (down 42%) to push its total domestic gross to $387.6 million. Within the next few days, the adaptation of Mojang’s video game juggernaut will surpass a $400 million domestic gross and crack the top 50 domestic grossers of all time. Warner Bros. also further eventized the movie this weekend with new “Block Party Edition” screenings, where viewers are encouraged to sing-along and parrot back on-screen internet memes for a more interactive experience. (That comes after some movie theaters posted warnings against “screaming” and “taking part in TikTok trends” after particularly rowdy opening weekend screenings.)
Fourth place goes to “The Accountant 2,” earning another $2.6 million on Friday. The Amazon MGM release is looking at a $9.8 million second weekend, down 60% from its opening weekend. That’s pacing behind the original 2016 “Accountant” by about 11% — not an ideal result considering this one cost much more at an $80 million production budget. Because of its Prime Video subscriber numbers (and many other business interests outside entertainment), Amazon probably cares less about theatrical grosses than most traditional studios. But it’s worth considering if the company believed “The Accountant 2” would be a bigger theatrical draw than this.
“Until Dawn” rounds out the top five, earning $1.1 million on Friday. The Sony horror release is projecting $3.6 million for its second weekend, which would mark a 55% drop from its opening.
Also opening this weekend, Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate have the Nicolas Cage thriller “The Surfer” in 884 venues. The film earned $320,000 on Friday and will struggle to debut in the top 10.
Read the full article here
