Weekend Box Office: Thunderbolts makes $76 million, which is on the low end for Marvel

The weekend box office is in, and Thunderbolts came in pretty much exactly where we predicted it would earlier this week, with $76 million. While this is a solid number, it can’t be denied that it’s on the low end for Marvel, with it roughly on par with how Shang-Chi and Eternals opened during those grim pandemic days. In fact, it was beaten by Captain America: Brave New World, which is being seen as something of a money loser, given its slow crawl to $200 million domestically, and only $414 million internationally, meaning it likely lost money. However, Thunderbolts may have an easier time breaking even, given the fact that it has a thriftier budget, and also scored a good A-minus CinemaScore rating, meaning that word of mouth is good.

One reason it might not have opened as big as other movies is the fact that Ryan Coogler’s Sinners has become a runaway success for Warner Bros. Despite losing its premium screens, the movie only dipped a mere 27% to $33 million this weekend and has a $179 million domestic total. A $250-300 million total is well within reach for this R-rated action/horror hybrid, with it certainly one of the year’s success stories. Another movie that likely got a bite taken out of it by Sinners is The Accountant 2, which fell a hefty 60% in week two to $9.8 million and a $41 million domestic total. It’s running quite a bit behind what the original did nine years ago, leaving a third film in doubt – unless it’s done specifically for streaming.

A Minecraft Movie also continued to be a huge hit, grossing $13 million for a total just under $400 million. Until Dawn fell 54% to $3.65 million and a $14.5 million total. The Rami Malek thriller, The Amateur, started wrapping up its run with $1.8 million in sixth place, with a not bad $36.9 million total, while King of Kings added another $1.3 million to it’s $57.3 million total, making it Angel Studios’ second biggest film even after Sound of Freedom. A24’s Warfare also began wrapping up its tour of duty with $1.25 million and a $24 million total, which isn’t bad considering the thrifty $20 million budget, while the Telugu-language Hit: The Third Case came in ninth with $1.1 million and a $2.2 million total.

The Nicolas Cage thriller, The Surfer, had a modest semi-wide opening, grossing $725 thousand at just over 1000 screens. Still, that’s way better than the troubled Alec Baldwin western, Rust, which managed to open on 115 screens but only grossed $25,000. According to Deadline, that’s only about $217 a screen. Ouch.

Next weekend should once again be dominated by Thunderbolts and Sinners, with Joe Carnahan’s Shadow Force not expected to pull in a massive audience. The next potential blockbuster is Final Destination: Bloodlines, which opens on May 16th. 

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