Thunderbolts*' strikes gold at US box office
Experts predict film will do well globally. Photo: File
New Marvel superhero film Thunderbolts* triumphed over the North American box office this weekend, raking in an estimated $76 million in a promising start to the summer film season, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported on Sunday.
Thunderbolts* features Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell and David Harbour as a motley bunch of antiheroes. Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays a malevolent CIA chief.
"This is a very good opening for a new superhero story," said David A Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. With "excellent" reviews and audience scores, the film should "play extremely well around the world," he said.
Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian said on X that "this kickoff film of the summer movie season will ignite an epic month of May for movie theatres!"
Ryan Coogler's period vampire thriller Sinners starring Michael B Jordan slipped to second place but still took in $33 million in its third weekend out, a showing The Hollywood Reporter called "phenomenal."
Warner Bros' video game adaptation A Minecraft Movie, starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, rose one spot from last weekend to third, earning $13.7 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period.
It remains the top release of the year, with total US ticket sales of $398.2 million and international sales of $475 million for a total of $873.2 million.
Fourth place went to Amazon MGM Studios' The Accountant 2, at $9.5 million. Ben Affleck plays a neurodivergent maths genius with criminal ties, and Jon Bernthal is his hit-man brother.
And in fifth was another video game adaptation, Sony's gory horror film Until Dawn, at $3.8 million.
Meantime, Alec Baldwin's ill-fated Western Rust - made infamous when a weapon held by Baldwin discharged a bullet, fatally wounding the film's cinematographer - finally opened in a limited release of 115 theatres. It took in just $25,000, according to The Hollywood Reporter. AFP