Though it is the third film for the God of Thunder, “Thor: Ragnarok” is leaving its predecessors in the dust as it thunders towards an estimated $118 million opening at the box office from 4,080 screens after making $46 million on Friday, including $14.5 million in previews. That’s just a tick above the $117 million made by the last Marvel release, “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” in July.
The first “Thor” opened to $65 million in 2011, while “Thor: The Dark World” opened to $85 million in 2013. That is the same amount “Doctor Strange” opened to in this release slot last year, making “Ragnarok” Marvel’s biggest November opening. This start also means that Marvel Studios is the first production studio in box office history to release three films with $100 million-plus openings in a calendar year.
Reception for “Ragnarok” has been glowing. The film has a 93 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes — the best score for a Marvel Cinematic Universe film since the 94 percent made by “Iron Man” in 2008 — and became the 12th MCU film to earn an A on CinemaScore, compared to a B+ for “Thor” and an A- for “The Dark World.”
In a very distant second is STX’s “A Bad Mom’s Christmas,” which is underperforming after releasing on Wednesday with an estimated $15 million weekend total and a $20 million five-day opening. It’s not a disastrous result for the $28 million film, but trackers had the film making $27 million in five days, and the first “Bad Moms” made $23.8 million in a conventional opening weekend release last year. Critics gave the film a 31 percent RT score while audiences gave it a B on CinemaScore, down from 58 percent and an A for the first “Bad Moms.”
Lionsgate’s Halloween films came in third and fourth, with “Jigsaw,” which made $2.2 million on Halloween, heading towards $6 million in its second weekend, while “Boo! 2: A Madea Halloween” is on its way towards $4.5 million in its third weekend. “Geostorm” rounds out the top 5 with $3 million.