Thor: Ragnarok' Hammers the Compeition for Disney's Marvel Studio
November 05 2017 - 1:43PM
Dow Jones News
By Erich Schwartzel
"Thor: Ragnarok" thundered into theaters with a $121 million
opening this weekend, breathing some life into a box-office market
reeling from its worst October in a decade.
"Ragnarok," now the 17th consecutive movie from Walt Disney
Co.'s Marvel Studios to open at No. 1, has grossed $427 million
globally, led by a $55.6 million debut in China.
"Ragnarok" is the third Thor movie since the original opened in
2011, and its opening this weekend is 41% higher than the 2011
debut of the series' second installment, "Thor: The Dark
World."
Chris Hemsworth reprises his role as the God of Thunder in the
movie, which also features Marvel characters Doctor Strange and the
Incredible Hulk. That interweaving of characters is a central
component of Marvel's strategy, which draws in moviegoers by
appealing to fans of various characters and story lines.
"Introducing characters like the Incredible Hulk creates this
feeling that [the movie] is bigger," said Dave Hollis, Disney's
distribution chief.
It has also helped Marvel avoid the sequel fatigue that has led
to disappointing openings in other franchise titles this year. The
studio's "Guardians of the Galaxy" sequel this summer also
outperformed its original installment.
"Ragnarok's" gross benefited from playing on higher-priced IMAX
Corp. screens, which have contributed $34 million to the movie's
global tally.
The "Ragnarok" opening is welcome news for theater owners, who
have weathered several flops this year and went into the weekend
with an annual box office down 5% compared with last year.
Last month was the lowest-grossing October since 2007, due to
misfires like "Blade Runner 2049" and "Geostorm." Several
high-profile releases will follow "Ragnarok" and help recover some
of this losses, including "Justice League" later this month and
"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" in December.
The weekend's other new release, "A Bad Moms Christmas" from STX
Entertainment, was also a sequel, but it didn't match its
predecessor's performance. The comedy fell a bit short of
expectations with a $21.6 million debut since opening
Wednesday.
That's a decent opening, given the movie's modest $28 million
budget, but indicates the movie won't be the moneymaker that the
original was. Last year's "Bad Moms," starring Mila Kunis and
Kathryn Hahn as mothers who try to shake up their domestic life,
was a breakout hit and ultimately collected $113 million.
In other box-office news, director Greta Gerwig's critically
acclaimed "Lady Bird" made its debut in four theaters with the best
limited opening of the year so far. "Lady Bird," starring Saoirse
Ronan as a precocious and frustrated Sacramento teenager, collected
$376,000 this weekend, for an average per-screen gross of
$94,000.
Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 05, 2017 13:28 ET (18:28 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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