Marvel Studios' "Thunderbolts*" opened the summer movie season over the weekend, collecting $162 million worldwide. The film earned an estimated $76 million at theaters in the United States and Canada.
The weekend performance marks a strong start for the summer box office, which typically begins the first weekend of May and accounts for a large portion of the year's total ticket sales. It more than doubled the domestic opening of last year’s summer starter, “The Fall Guy.”
Starring Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell and Hannah John-Kamen, “Thunderbolts*” centers on a team of unconventional figures brought together for government missions. Lewis Pullman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Geraldine Viswanathan and Wendell Pierce also appear.
The film’s $76 million domestic debut falls below the February opening of Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World,” which launched with $88.8 million domestically. However, “Thunderbolts*” received a warmer welcome from audiences and critics.
On the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of critics and 94% of moviegoers gave the film positive scores. This reception suggests potential for sustained attendance in the coming weeks.
For Walt Disney and Marvel, the movie's reception is a welcome sign after a period of varied box office results for their films following the massive success of “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019. Recent titles like “The Marvels” and “Captain America: Brave New World” underperformed, while “Deadpool & Wolverine” exceeded expectations.
Analysts noted that launching a film with characters less familiar to mainstream audiences, compared to established heroes, represents a positive outcome for Marvel.
Jeff Bock, senior box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations Co., said the result is in line with recent Marvel performance but noted it’s a decent start for a film featuring characters previously seen mostly as sidekicks.
The “Thunderbolts” film sets the stage for other upcoming projects in the shared universe, including “Fantastic Four” and next summer's “Avengers: Doomsday.” Bock called the movie a "prelude to something much bigger.”
Year-to-date ticket sales in the United States and Canada are running 15% above 2024 levels but remain 31.8% below figures from 2019. The 2019 summer season benefited significantly from the record-setting opening of “Avengers: Endgame.”
Andrew Cripps, head of global theatrical distribution at Disney, expressed optimism about the film's prospects. “I think word of mouth will be really strong and people will continue to discover it,” Cripps said.
