New Marvel Superhero Film “Thunderbolts” won the North American box office this weekend, raising an estimated $76 million in a promising start to the summer film season, Industry Watcher Exhebitor Relations reported Sunday.
“Thunderbolts” features Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell and David Harbor as a miscellaneous bunch of anti-heroes. Julia Louis Dreyfus plays the malicious CIA chief.
“This is a very good opening for a new superhero story,” said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. With “good” reviews and viewer scores, the film “works very well all over the world,” he said.
ComScore analyst Paul Dergarabedian said at X, “This kickoff film of the summer movie season will set fire to the epic month of May in cinemas!”
Ryan Coogler's vampire strire “Thinner,” starring Michael B. Jordan, drove to second place, but won $33 million over the third weekend.
Warner Bros.' A Minecraft Movie, a video game adaptation starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, went No. 3 from last weekend, earning $13.7 million over the Friday-Sunday period.
This is the top release of the year, with total US ticket sales of $398.2 million and international sales of $475 million totaling $873.2 million.
In fourth place, Amazon MGM Studios' “The Accountant 2” was $9.5 million. Ben Affleck plays a nervous mathematics genius with criminal bonds, and John Bernsal is his hitman's brother.
And fifth, another video game adaptation, Sony's golly horror film, Till Dawn, costing $3.8 million.
Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin's unfortunate “rust” in the West became infamous when the weapons held by Baldwin released a bullet and fatally wounded the film's director, eventually opening with a limited release of 115 theatres.
It cost just $25,000, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Here's what we'll close out our top 10:
“Amateur” ($1.8 million)
“King of Kings” ($1.7 million)
“War” ($1.3 million)
“Hit: Third Case” ($925,000)
“Surfer” ($675,000)
bur-bbk/sst
