THOR: LOVE & THUNDER TAKES A MASSIVE DROP IN THE SECOND WEEK AT THE BOX OFFICE, SHOULD MARVEL STUDIOS BE WORRIED?
Thor: Love & Thunder had a significant drop-off in its Box Office Collection; is marvel going bankrupt again?
Superhero movies from any standpoint, be it production, sets or VFX, are a visual delight. But what we see on the big screen doesn’t just pop into existence as the creative minds and the money involved play a huge role in its development.
That said, having a massive budget doesn’t guarantee success; on the contrary, it adds more fan expectations, which could lead to total financial failure.
Marvel Studios have come into the financial radar again, and this time it’s their latest marvel movie, Thor: Love & Thunder. Released on 8th July 2022 as part of the sixth movie in Phase Four of the MCU, has seen a major drop off in collections at the box office.
While the movie initially opened strong during its release, there has been a significant decline in the viewership and box office collections in recent weeks.
So let’s look at how the movie fell off and crunch some numbers to answer an important question, Should Marvel Studios be worried?
THOR LOVE & THUNDER: BOX OFFICE COLLECTION
Thor: Love and Thunder had a grand opening day, collecting $144,165,107, making it the highest opening collector in the Thor franchise. Also, the movie became the 12th largest for the MCU and the third-largest for 2022 behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Jurassic World Dominion.
Thor: Love and Thunder are ranked 6th in the top ten 2022 movies at the box office, making $239,240,969 million.
To put that number in context, let’s see how it fared compared to Domestic Box office records:
| Record | Rank |
| All Time Domestic Box Office (Rank 101-200) | 148 |
| All Time Domestic Sequel Box Office | 78 |
| All Time Domestic Box Office for Super Hero Movies | 34 |
| All Time Domestic Box Office for Walt Disney Movies | 47 |
Considering the previous movies released in the fourth phase of the MCU, the opening week collection is quite impressive. But if the movie did so well in its first week, why did Thor drop the hammer?
THOR: LOVE & THUNDER’S BOX OFFICE DROP
Let’s first delve into why the movie took a drop, including its ratings, and then analyze how it affected the box office numbers.
Thor: Love and Thunder was a nice break for the fans after the Avengers saga. The Thunder God returned for the fourth film in the franchise, which also eventually brought back the fan-favorite Chris Hemsworth as Thor.
The movie had an extensive and popular cast, yet it wasn’t a smashing hit which was further evidenced by its IMDB rating of 6.9/10. Even an appearance from Brett Goldstein from Ted Lasso, who cameoed as Hercules in the mid-credit scene, failed to impress the critics.
Most fans and critics have expressed their displeasure and mixed emotions while citing various factors that hampered the movie s’ ratings. One popular reason is that the movie had no connection with the previous parts. Thus, each story became hard to follow.
In the Avengers: Endgame, we saw Thor as comic relief rather than the powerful thunder god we had been used to in previous instalments. The trope also continues in Love and Thunder, which let down the hardcore Thor fans.
While comic relief is a good segway to change tones, Thor: Love and Thunder overused it more than any previous MCU movie.
Director Taika Waiti received backlash from the fans and the VFX department for his comments in a Vanity Fair video. Waititi essentially made a joke about the VFX team for not being able to complete their work before the deadline.
This kind of negative press, especially around the director, doesn’t bode well with the fans and, in the end, affects the sales.
Now coming to how these factors affected the box office, let’s first glance at the table below to see a comparison of the collection between the first and second week.
| Date | Rank | Gross | % Change | Theatres | Per Theatre | Total Gross | Week |
| Jul 8, 2022 | 1 | $144,165,107 | 4,375 | $32,952 | $144,165,107 | 1 | |
| Jul 15, 2022 | 1 | $46,632,172 | -68% | 4,375 | $10,659 | $233,903,308 | 2 |
Looking at the collection, we have to bring this topic to light because of the 68% drop-off the movie took in the second week. From $144million to just $46million ranks as the worst falloff in MCU history. Furthermore, Thor love and Thunder ranks 2nd on the list for second-weekend drop-off in MCU releases.
Check out the complete list below:
| MOVIE | DROP OFF % |
| Black Widow | 67.8% |
| Thor: Love and Thunder | 67.7% |
| Spider Man: No Way Home | 67.5% |
| Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | 67% |
| Eternals | 62.3% |
| Spider Man: Homecoming | $62.2% |
| Ant Man and the Wasp | 61.6% |
| Captain America: The First Avenger | 60.7% |
| The Incredible Hulk | 60.1% |
| Avengers: Age of Ultron | 59.4% |
Domestically, Thor: Love and Thunder have collected $239million and internationally $264million, taking its Worldwide Box office collection to $504million. The movie’s budget was $250million, i.e., a profit of $254million by the second week is relatively good.
Thor: Love and Thunder are yet to release in China, which will further increase the earnings.
HAS THE MARVEL DOWNFALL STARTED?
Although the movie has made a 20% profit by the second week, fans have been critical of the MCU Phase Four releases, like Wanda Vision and Eternals failing to hit the mark.
Financially, Marvel movies will always do well as they have created an environment to thrive within the superhero genre. The MCU fandom is massive in its support but also reproving in its reception, and it would be wise for the creators to acknowledge it.
The fanfare and hype before the release of a Marvel movie may be nice, but a false plot and negative reviews will end up affecting the collection in the long run.
A second-week drop-off for Thor Love and Thunder may not begin the marvel downfall, but it does lay seeds of doubts in the MCU fans before their next watching experience.
RECOMMENED:-THOR LOVE & THUNDER : KEVIN FEIGE CASTED THE MID-CREDIT SCENE
CONCLUSION
Finally, is marvel going bankrupt again as they did in 1996? Undoubtedly not, but MCU fans will hope the next movie in Phase Four, i.e., Black Panther: Wakanda Forever lives up to its expectation; with the fans and also financially.
