Marvel Studios has gotten the 2025 summer box office off to a good start with a $31.5 million opening day for “Thunderbolts*,” putting the film on course for a $75 million opening weekend from 4,300 locations.
While short of the $89 million 3-day opening of “Captain America: Brave New World,” this result is in line with pre-release projections for “Thunderbolts*.” More importantly, “Thunderbolts*” is earning considerably better audience reception than “Brave New World,” including an A- on CinemaScore compared to a B- for the most recent MCU installment.
Other reception scores include a 4.5/5 from general audiences on PostTrak, and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 88% critics and 95% audience. With the inconsistency in quality since “Avengers: Endgame,” Marvel has had to follow the same rules as the rest of Hollywood, living and dying by word-of-mouth. With such high marks across the board, “Thunderbolts*” now has a chance to leg out and possibly convince some lapsed fans to give it a try.
In second place with another incredible showing in its third weekend is Warner Bros.’ “Sinners,” which despite losing Imax screens to “Thunderbolts*” is projected by industry estimates to earn $34.5 million in this frame. That’s just a 25% drop from its $45 million second weekend.
“Sinners” is on pace to become the highest domestic grossing original live-action film since the $292.5 million North American run of Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” back in 2010 and the $275 million run of Alfonso Cuaron’s “Gravity” in 2013. It has blown away any questions about whether it would be profitable against its $90 million budget, and has set itself up for a lucrative post-theatrical run in a big win for Warner Bros. and film chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy.
“Thunderbolts*” and “Sinners” have also combined to push the current industry estimates for the first weekend of summer 2025 to $147 million. That’s roughly double the $74.6 million overall total of the same weekend last year, when strike delays left theaters without the traditional Marvel release and the film released in its place, “The Fall Guy,” flopped with a $27.7 million opening.