Thor: Love and Thunder officially surpassed the domestic box office earnings of its predecessor, Ragnorok.
As reported by ComicBook.com, Marvel Studios' fourth Thor film grossed $316 million during its most recent weekend in theaters, officially sailing past the $315 million earned by 2017's Ragnarok domestically. However, Ragnarok is still ahead of Love and Thunder at the global box office with a total tally of $853.9 million while the most recent entry in the Thor franchise has raked in $700 million overall.
Following its July 8 premiere, Love and Thunder surpassed the opening weekend box office of Ragnarok with a domestic total of $143 million in its first weekend, opening in 4,375 theaters across North America. While this is below projections that the film would earn around $150 million, it still surpassed Ragnarok's opening weekend haul, which bowed to $123 million domestically. Based on those numbers, Love and Thunder was the third-largest opening weekend of 2022, coming in behind Jurassic World: Dominion with $145 million and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which earned $185 million. Love and Thunder's worldwide total was $302 million and, comparatively, Ragnarok earned over $315 million at the domestic box office, making for a worldwide cume of over $853 million.
Love and Thunder Out-Earns Ragnarok
Thor: Love and Thunder will mark Chris Hemsworth's fourth solo film in the MCU as the titular God of Thunder, after making his debut as the hero with Thor in 2011, directed by Kenneth Branagh. Overall, Hemsworth has reprised his role as Thor Odinson eight times across the Infinity Saga. His other solo movies include 2013's Thor: The Dark World, directed by Alan Taylor, and 2017's Thor: Ragnorok, directed by Taika Waititi. In a recent interview, Hemsworth described Love and Thunder as the type of film a seven-year-old would make.
"It was Taika at his craziest," he said. "Taika, normally, is kind of at an 11, so you can do the math there. He described it as like he'd been given the keys to the kingdom, and someone said, 'Here, if a seven-year-old was making a movie, what would you do?' He said, 'Well, I want to put this in it. I want to do this. I want to try this.' And everything he suggested, I said yes to, and then we had this insane film in front of us."
Love and Thunder picks after the events of 2019's Avengers: Endgame and sees Thor, joined by the Guardians of the Galaxy, Jane Foster's the Mighty Thor (Natalie Portman) and King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), go up against the villainous Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. According to director Taika Waititi, Bale's Gorr is one of the best villains the MCU has seen yet.
Thor: Love and Thunder is now in theaters.
Source: ComicBook.com