Key Takeaways
Total Weekend Gross:
$145,371,801 | -0.8% Last Week / +49.2% Weekend 18, 2024
The domestic box office registered its fifth consecutive weekend over $100M, an important rally to kick off a Q2 that has reinvigorated the market. We’re slightly down from last weekend overall given the diversity of new product on display for Frame 17. Because studios decided to save their next big tentpoles for Memorial Day, the following two weeks’ theatrical business lives or dies based on how well Thunderbolts* holds… although Sinners continues to be a bright spot.
- Top Title: Thunderbolts (Marvel Studios) | $76M / 4,330 Screens / $17,552 PSA | Week 1
- Top Opener: Thunderbolts (Marvel Studios) | $76M / 4,330 Screens / $17,552 PSA | Week 1
- Best PSA: Thunderbolts (Marvel Studios) | $76M / 4,330 Screens / $17,552 PSA | Week 1
Highlights From the Weekend
1. Thunderbolts*
Marvel Studios | NEW
$76M Domestic Opening Weekend | $162.1M Global Total
Despite some degree of positive buzz plus a late-game Avengers endorsement, Marvel Studios’ B-squad team-up movie Thunderbolts* arrived just below our expectations with an estimated $76M from 4,330 screens for a $17,552 Per Screen Average. Still, we stated on Wednesday that an opening this low was a possibility, and long term we expect this title to perform on-par with 2021’s Shang-Chi ($224.5M domestic). Some industry handicappers were predicting an opening in the low-$70’s earlier in the weekend, so there was some uptick. The studio’s poorly-reviewed Captain America: Brave New World opened to $88.5M back in February.
Critical was super solid at 88% on Rotten Tomatoes (although many reviews swung moderately positive/so-so), with audiences giving it a 94% score while CinemaScore nabbed an “A-” rating. The majority of MCU movies have been in the “A+” or “A” brackets of CinemaScore, so that “A-” puts Thunderbolts* in the same grouping as The Incredible Hulk, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The First Avenger, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Black Widow. PostTrak was 4.5 stars as well as a 74% definite recommend, plus 5 stars from children under 12 and parents.
Here’s how the 3-Day looked, including $11.5M in Thursday Previews…
- Friday – $31.5M
- Saturday – $24.5M
- Sunday – $20M
Audiences were split heavily male at 64% vs 36% female, despite the title team being half female. Here’s how demographics looked…
- Caucasian (42%)
- Hispanic (24%)
- AA (18%)
- Asian (10%)
- NatAm/Other (6%)
An estimated 43% of total box office earnings came from Premium Large Format, IMAX, 3D or specialty formats (4DX, D-Box, ScreenX). North American IMAX screens accounted for $8.6M ($18.1M globally).
- 2D – 90%
- Traditional 2D – 57%
- PLF 2D – 20%
- IMAX 2D – 11%
- Motion 2D – 1%
- ScreenX – 1%
- 3D – 10%
- Traditional 3D – 6%
- PLF 3D – 2%
- IMAX 3D – 1%
- Motion 3D – 1%
Thunderbolts* is coming in at a disadvantage because it’s a smaller scale movie being judged on a high expectations MCU curve. It has no chance of surpassing A Minecraft Movie to become the highest grosser of 2025. It would be fruitless to compare this opening to the bigger Avengers-level A-character movies, but let’s see how it looks next to other recent titles which debuted at this scale…
- Black Widow (2021) – $80.36M opening/$183.65M domestic
- Thunderbolts* (2025) – $76M opening
- Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) – $75.8M opening/$216.6M domestic
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) – $75.38M opening/$224.5M domestic
- Eternals (2021) – $71.29M opening/$164.87M domestic
Ant-Man and the Wasp is an ideal movie to give some positive perspective on this opening because it was pre-pandemic and -like Thunderbolts*– focused on B-level characters including Ghost. Despite opening in a prime summer slot, no one expected the second Ant-Man to perform like a Spider-Man or Iron Man movie. The second Ant-Man did manage to nearly triple its grosses internationally ($623.1M WW), so those territories will be crucial to how Thunderbolts* is ultimately perceived.
Overseas grosses for Thunderbolts* were above domestic at $86.1M from all key international markets for a global total of $162.1M. That’s compared to Brave New World‘s $92.4M international 3-Day opening which brought the global to $180.9M. The biggest territory was China, where it opened near-identical to Brave New World‘s China bow ($10.26M), with 27% coming from IMAX auditoriums ($2.9M).
Thunderbolts* – Opening Weekend
Top Ten Overseas Markets
1. China | $10.4M
2. UK | $7.7M
3. Mexico | $7.3M
4. Brazil | $4.0M
5. France | $3.8M
6. Germany | $3.6M
7. Korea | $3.5M
8. Australia | $3.4M
9. Japan | $3.2M
10. Spain | $2.8M
Other Notable Performances
WB’s Sinners has over-performed once again with $33M for a -28% third frame drop to land at #2. That brings domestic to $179.7M on its way to crossing $200M by next week. Globally the movie already crossed that line with $236.7M WW. The biggest overseas territory is the UK with $13.8M.
Now that all is said and done, Lucasfilm’s reissue of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith took in a final single week tally of $34,107,714 million. That extra cash pushed the 2005 entry past the $400M mark domestically ($414.37M) and over $900M globally ($902.7M). In terms of the overall franchise, Revenge still stands as the #7 and #6 film on both those fronts, respectively.
Disney’s Snow White crossed the $200M mark globally ($200.29M) as it continues to chug along before its digital release. Domestic is currently at $86.12M, nudging it past Cruella ($86.10M) despite that 2021 film being simultaneously released to Disney+.
Next Weekend
The field looks wide open for Thunderbolts* to continue to dominate with no major competition until the one-two punch of Mission: Impossible and Lilo & Stitch on Memorial Day. That’s actually an interesting pairing, since the original animated Lilo & Stitch opened against Tom Cruise’s Minority Report back in 2002. Next frame sees only small pictures like the horror flick Clown in a Cornfield or the Josh Hartnett starrer Fight or Flight as studios steer clear of Marvel.
Sunday Studio Estimates | Weekend 18 – 2025
Total 3-Day Domestic Gross: $145,371,801 | (+49.2% vs 2024)
| Title | Weekend Estimate | % Change | Locations | Location Change | PSA | Domestic Total | Week | Distributor |
| Thunderbolts* | $76,000,000 | 4,330 | $17,552 | 76,000,000 | 1 | Walt Disney | ||
| Sinners | $33,000,000 | -28% | 3,347 | n/c | $9,860 | 179,729,000 | 3 | Warner Bros. |
| A Minecraft Movie | $13,700,000 | -40% | 3,571 | -270 | $3,836 | 398,209,000 | 5 | Warner Bros. |
| The Accountant 2 | $9,468,181 | -61% | 3,610 | n/c | $2,623 | 41,151,000 | 2 | Amazon MGM S… |
| Until Dawn | $3,800,000 | -53% | 3,055 | n/c | $1,244 | 14,359,000 | 2 | Sony Pictures |
| The Amateur | $1,800,000 | -51% | 2,135 | -925 | $843 | 36,939,680 | 4 | 20th Century… |
| The King of Kings | $1,658,234 | -61% | 2,035 | -1,140 | $815 | 57,665,661 | 4 | Angel Studios |
| Warfare | $1,275,395 | -52% | 1,315 | -590 | $970 | 1,275,395 | 4 | A24 |
| The Legend of Ochi | $341,951 | -76% | 1,004 | -149 | $341 | 341,951 | 3 | A24 |
| Disney’s Snow White | $236,000 | -50% | 310 | -300 | $761 | 86,123,346 | 7 | Walt Disney |
| Drop | $214,000 | -77% | 470 | -1,403 | $455 | 16,429,000 | 4 | Universal |
| Captain America: Brave New World | $161,000 | 498% | 105 | 55 | $1,533 | 200,396,781 | 12 | Walt Disney |
| Pride & Prejudice | $135,000 | -79% | 210 | -450 | $643 | 44,681,000 | 1,017 | Focus Features |
| Bonjour Tristesse | $102,600 | 228 | $450 | 102,600 | 1 | Greenwich | ||
| The Wedding Banquet | $100,615 | -64% | 83 | -423 | $1,212 | 1,903,156 | 3 | Bleecker Street |
| The Shrouds | $90,600 | -69% | 169 | -110 | $536 | 600,317 | 3 | Janus Films |
| The Ballad of Wallis Island | $60,000 | -39% | 86 | -88 | $698 | 1,571,000 | 6 | Focus Features |
| The Friend | $36,608 | -50% | 67 | -35 | $546 | 3,837,136 | 6 | Bleecker Street |
| A Nice Indian Boy | $30,489 | -40% | 28 | -13 | $1,089 | 724,324 | 5 | Blue Harbor |
| Blue Sun Palace | $14,063 | 25% | 4 | -1 | $3,516 | 43,252 | 2 | Dekanalog |
| Pavements | $13,164 | 1 | $13,164 | 13,164 | 1 | Utopia | ||
| Vulcanizadora | $5,246 | 1 | $5,246 | 5,246 | 1 | Oscilloscope… |
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