Wow, THOR: THE DARK WORLD has a huge opening weekend, and every one who says “Those superhero movies are going to get old any second now” are standing around looking more stupid than usual. Variety gapes in wonder and awe at the Disney/Marvel machine’s latest success story:
The $86 million domestic opening — more than $20 million more than its predecessor’s summertime bow — for “Thor: The Dark World” is a byproduct of the massive popularity of the Marvel brand and its characters; but namely, those featured in “The Avengers,” which stands as the industry’s third-highest grossing film of all time at $1.5 billion worldwide.
Globally, “Thor: The Dark World” has cumed $327 million in just two weeks, compared with the first “Thor” (2011), which amassed an almost $450 million worldwide total.
Made without huge action stars, and the usual somewhat cookie cutter Marvel film look, Thor:TDW is still a huge hit worldwide. And everyone is jealous. “The Marvel guys are so fucking smart,” one industry insider told Variety. “I don’t think anyone is as smart as them in the industry.”
The mundane AGENTS OF SHIELD aside, Marvel can seemingly do no wrong, targeting far beyond the “fanboy belt, as THR reports:
Thor 2 played to all quadrants of the moviegoing audience and quickly transformed into a date-night movie, with couples making up 62 percent of the audience. Families made up 21 percent of those buying tickets, and teens, 17 percent. All told, 39 percent of ticket buyers were under the age of 25, and 61 percent over. The sequel nabbed an A- CinemaScore, compared to a B+ for the first Thor. Females made up an impressive 48 percent of Friday’s audience — a larger percentage than usual for a superhero pic — but by Sunday, males made up 62 percent of the overall weekend audience.
I’ve yet to see THOR yet with all the travelling, but I’m not surprised to see it do well given the epic fantasy backdrop and Disney?Marvel’s incredibly smart marketing. The next Captain America movie still seems like a harder sell to me, because the premise is a bit murkier and Chris Evans doesn’t have an achetype as easy to nail as playboy Iron Man or handsome alien god Thor. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if it surprised a lot of people.
Thor was fantastic and fun, everything the dour, unfun Man of Steel should have been.
All kneel before Loki!
Marvel have much to thank Tom Hiddleston for now I think, as well as Robert Downey Jr.
Yeah, it was the opposite of Man of Steel, meaning it was fun and I’m glad I went to see it.
So, has Marvel Studios signed everyone for the Avengers sequel?
Filming starts in February.
The good reception of this “alien god” warrior might give hope for a goddess warrior Wonder Woman film in the future.
But then… DC films have been so dark. It works for Batman / Dark Knight, but they can’t all be unfun like that — as noted in this Thor film.
I saw Thor II in 2-D at 10 AM Friday morning, and the sparse (but appropriate for the hour) crowd was more than 40% female senior citizens.
I’m assuming they didn’t *just* come to see Thor shirtless.
It’s very entertaining – highly recommended. Once again, Hiddleston’s Loki is the most compelling character. He needs to have his own film – just give him someone more eeeevil to fight.
It’s amazing to see trailers for TWO more Marvel movies beforehand (X-Men DOFP and Cap 2) and then stay after the movie to see the Guardians of the Galaxy tease. Marvel movies have got it going on, as the kids say. I feel bad for Warner Brothers, which is looking more and more desperate to try to catch up…
Kat Dennings’ Darcy was the best thing in the first movie. I hope she gets more footage in this one. Movies about the impending end of the universe can always use some comic relief.
I didn’t love it, but Hemsworth and Hiddleston are both good-great in their roles, so that buys it a lot of wiggle room.
That Chris Hemsworth is so dreamy. I personally know 5 women who fantasize about withholding sex from him.
Enjoyed it very much, and looking forward to the AGENTS OF SHIELD tie-in episode next week.
How do they do it? You’d think it’d be formulaic by now, but Thor was surprising. Very good. The trailer for Cap was fun as well. I like that it wasn’t completely filled with quick cuts and snappy one liners, like almost all action flicks. It showed a complete scene, to remind you how fun the original was. The Winter Soldier looks really dlfaithful to the book, which I love. Although I hear rumors that it’s based on the old Nick Fury vs SHIELD comic from over 20 years ago. If true, I’m really excited!
I’m sorry, he looks kind of silly standing there with that big, Pythonesque mallet in his hand. That thing is as big as his head!
I would compare these Marvel flicks to Schwarzenegger movies. The best of them can be really outstanding but they seem to have a basic quality control where they’re all perfectly acceptable entertainment.
Mike
TA-DAAAA!!!!
I wonder if the subway gag classifies as sexist. Same for Hemsworth’s but shit in Rush.
Hemsworth should probably be ashamed of some of the things he’s done to me in my dreams, but I’m surprisingly o.k. with it.
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