After a few mellow weekends at the box office, the God of Thunder and a few Bad moms are expected to give multiplexes quite the jolt this weekend.
Thor: Ragnarok is currently the best-reviewed of all titles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at 96% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and it’s the seventh MCU title with an RT score of 90% or higher. Thor: Ragnarok‘s stateside reach includes 3,400-plus 3D screens, every single Imax auditorium numbering 391, and 204 D-Box venues. Previews kick off on today at 7PM. At 600 locations, there’s an opening night fan event which will feature early access to the film, exclusive content and collectible giveaways.
Disney handled the second Thor: The Dark World four years ago, and it was the first Marvel title to play the early November period opening to $85.7M. That was a better start than the first Thor which Paramount released during the first weekend of May 2011 taking in $65.7M. To date, the Thor franchise counts $1.09 billion. There’s a lot of hope riding on Thor: Ragnarok; that the movie will usher in a lucrative two-month holiday period, propelling the 2017 domestic box office to a brand new all-time record that’s north of $11.4 billion. After Alcon/Sony’s Blade Runner 2049 failed to work on a blockbuster level, October went to the dogs with $539M per ComScore, the lowest for the second month of autumn in a decade.
Marvel is always safe to bet on and everything is in line for their latest entry to break through in a really big way. I’m calling about $125-130 million for the weekend.
Looking to be solid counter programming is A Bad Mom’s Christmas, the sequel to last summer’s surprise hit, Bad Moms. The first installment of the Scott Moore-Jon Lucas directed raunchy female driven comedy series was released 16 months ago and posted a 4.8x multiple of $113.2M off a $23.8M opening. Bad Moms was the first R-rated title since 2009’s The Hangover to earn an A CinemaScore. The sequel follows Amy (Mila Kunis), Kiki (Kristen Bell), and Carla (Kathryn Hahn) who in addition to dealing with the holiday stress and making everyone around them happy, have to contend with their mothers played respectively by Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines, and Susan Sarandon.
The film got an early start on the weekend with a Wednesday release and early estimates has it coming in at $2.7 million for its opening day. That’s a solid start as the film should show similar legs to the first film, especially with its Christmas theme that should play well the next few weeks. I’m calling $17 million over three days and about $25 million over five.
Check back on Monday for the final box office results!
