Thunderbolts* strikes the top of the box office as Sinners continues astonishing run

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Back in the day, it was a given that Marvel movies would bring in over $100 million during their opening weekends in May, signaling the start of summer blockbusters. However, these numbers were more common in the 2010s, except for a few instances like Thor’s $65 million debut in 2011 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s $90 million start in 2014. Nowadays, Marvel films have been met with varying opinions from the public, and the extensive movie and TV universe has made it challenging for casual viewers to keep up. This weekend, Thunderbolts* earned the top spot at the box office with a decent $76 million, but its $180 million budget is something to consider.

It’s striking to see how much goodwill the MCU has depleted, given that Thunderbolts, although receiving critical acclaim comparable to usual Phase Three titles (i.e., movies from 2016-2019), had a lower domestic box office debut for the franchise. Interestingly, Black Widow managed to open slightly better four years ago, even though it was also released on Disney+ as a Premium Video On Demand title at the same time. This suggests that the Marvel Studios logo, once pristine and captivating, isn’t quite as spotless nor appealing as it used to be.

As a passionate movie enthusiast, I must admit that the marketing strategy behind “Thunderbolts” was ingenious. It successfully introduced lesser-known Marvel characters to the masses in an appealing way. Despite receiving an A- CinemaScore and maintaining a steady audience over the weekend, it seems that “Thunderbolts” may not be as frontloaded as some recent MCU titles like “Brave New World” or “Quantumania.” With a domestic finish of over $200 million still a possibility for these anti-heroes, it’s clear they have potential. In retrospect, in an earlier time, “Thunderbolts” could have easily been a breakout hit similar to “Guardians of the Galaxy” or “Captain Marvel.” However, in this current era, it performed comparably with other non-sequel MCU films from the 2020s, such as “Shang-Chi” and “Eternals,” both opening within the $70-75 million range.

In the second spot stood the true titan of the present-day cinema market, “Sinners.” Despite losing important IMAX and premium large-format screens, the powerful force behind this Ryan Coogler film, “Sinners,” showed no signs of slowing down. The movie raked in another $33 million during its latest showing, a noteworthy decrease of only 28% compared to last weekend. “Sinners” isn’t merely a film people desire to watch in IMAX. It has transformed into an unmissable cinematic experience that has captivated audiences. After an astounding 17 days, “Sinners” has amassed $180 million domestically. If it maintains its strong performance through the competitive month of May, a domestic total exceeding $300 million seems likely. The success story of “Sinners” at the box office is truly unparalleled.

Over the weekend, the film adaptation of Minecraft continued to attract more viewers, earning an additional $13.7 million. However, this represented a 40% decrease compared to the previous week. Currently, its domestic total stands at approximately $398.2 million. In just a few days, it is expected to surpass $400 million domestically, making it one of only five Warner Bros. movies to achieve this milestone. Interestingly, prior to Minecraft, no live-action video game movie had managed to gross over $250 million domestically. This film, directed by Jared Hess, has significantly surpassed such financial benchmarks.

In the cinematic landscape, the release of a new action film seemed to impact the box office performance of “The Accountant 2”. However, considering that “Thunderbolts” has a significantly different rating from “The Accountant”, it might be that fans of the original flocked to theaters during its opening weekend. Despite earning $9.4 million in this frame, “The Accountant 2” saw a decline of 61% and now stands at a total gross of $41.1 million after ten days. On the other hand, “Until Dawn” experienced a typical drop for a horror movie in its second weekend. Following a disappointing debut, the film managed to bring in an additional $3.8 million, bringing its total gross to $14.35 million over the past ten days.

Located just shy of the top five spots was “The Amateur,” earning $1.8 million this week, marking a significant 51% drop compared to last weekend. To date, it has amassed a total of $36.93 million in North America. Meanwhile, “The King of Kings” experienced another steep post-Easter dip, raking in $1.66 million this frame, representing a 61% decrease from the previous weekend. Despite this decline, Angel Studios can breathe a sigh of relief as this low-budget animated film has already gathered an impressive $57.6 million. “Warfare,” on the other hand, saw a 52% drop in its fourth week, adding another $1.27 million to its total. With this latest haul, the war movie now stands at $24 million earned domestically. Even with its domestic run nearing its end, “Warfare” is poised to join an exclusive list of only 14 A24 films to surpass $25+ million domestically.

Completing the top ten list was the movie “HIT: The 3rd Case“, which earned $955,000 in 590 cinemas. Simultaneously, Guru Nanak Jahaz collected $685,000 from only 119 screens. In addition, the other new wide release in the market was “The Surfer“. Despite being screened in 1,085 theaters, it managed a modest $674,560, translating to just $621 per theater – an unremarkable debut.

As a movie enthusiast, I must admit that the weekend performance of “The Legend of Ochi” was far from magical. The film took an unexpected plunge of 76%, which is quite substantial for a family flick – something unusual in the cinematic world. It managed to gather another $341,951, bringing its domestic total to just shy of $2.2 million.

On the flip side, “Captain America: Brave New World” saw a significant 49% surge this weekend. With Disney cleverly pairing it as a double-feature with “Thunderbolts*” at drive-in screenings, the movie raked in an additional $161,000, pushing its domestic total to an impressive $200.39 million.

Greenwich Entertainment released ‘Bonjour Tristesse’ in 228 cinemas, yet it earned just $102,600, averaging $450 per cinema. After adding more than 200 locations last weekend, ‘The Shrouds’ lost 110 theaters this week. As expected, it dropped by 69%, earning another $90,600, bringing its total US earnings to $600,317. This frame, ‘Pavements’ made $13,164 from a single cinema, while ‘Mulcanizadora’ debuted in one theater as well, but only grossed $5,246.

Over the opening weekend of May 2024, the ten highest-grossing movies earned a total of $149 million. This is unusual as the final weekend of April usually exceeds the first weekend of May by more than $9 million. Generally, the start of May marks the beginning of summer with a big blockbuster release. However, *Thunderbolts* performed moderately well during this period, but its opening weekend was one of the lower ones in recent history for the month of May.

This past weekend underscored the significance of having numerous fresh options available in the market. Unlike last week, where three films were released into over 2,800 theaters collectively, only one new feature was shown in more than 1,100 cinemas this time around. A diverse range of offerings encourages more audience attendance. For instance, if a romantic comedy or children’s animated film had been released alongside Thunderbolts, it would likely have found an audience given that fewer than ten films grossed over $1 million each during the weekend.

In most cases, it’s detrimental for movie theaters if comic book blockbusters launch without any rival movies in the market, except for instances like the debut of an Avengers sequel. This issue has been a concern since before the COVID-19 pandemic forced theater closures and transformed the industry drastically. For example, the opening weekend of Birds of Prey (2020) fell short of expectations due to lack of competition from other major new releases. The same pattern persists in the 2020s with movies like The Marvels, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and Joker: Folie a Deux struggling without any competing films. This weekend’s box office performance was comparatively better due to Thunderbolts* earning over $75 million and Sinners maintaining its popularity. However, there could have been an additional opportunity for another wide release this weekend.

*Note: “Thunderbolts” is a fictional movie mentioned in the original text.

In simpler terms, during the first weekend of most Mays over the past decade (except for May 2024), movies usually had lower earnings. However, the opening weekend of May 2025 surpassed the earnings of May 2-4, 2014 when “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” was released by about 6%. This strong start was further boosted by holdover movies like “Sinners”, which kept the weekend’s earnings only 5% lower than May 5-7, 2023 when “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” dominated. The upcoming weekends in May 2025 are expected to be strong (except for next weekend, which has no major studio releases), with Memorial Day weekend looking particularly promising due to upcoming Disney and Tom Cruise blockbusters. April 2025 was a great period for the box office, and May 2025 is likely to maintain this momentum. Major studios will need to release more than one movie per week in order to keep up with demand.

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2025-05-05 17:15