After being on an up-and-down rollercoaster for over a year-and-half, domestic box offices are beginning to see a surge of moviegoers again, and that could breed great news for Disney/Marvel’s latest film adventure, Eternals. The film is slated to head for a $75 million opening weekend at U.S. theaters.
The Chloe Zhao-directed entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is on track for the second-best ticket pre-seller among blockbuster films being released in theaters, Fandango reported to Deadline. Eternals presales are moving ahead of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Marvel Studios' previous superhero blockbuster with $13 million in ticket sales already banked for the film, although it’s still slightly behind Black Widow, which is the current leader for ticket presales among MCU films.
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While the numbers sound almost on track for a typical MCU film, the $75 million projection is a downslide from the original $80 million projection for Eternals. The $5 million decline could partly be due to the mixed reviews the film has received so far, with the film currently holding a 54% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and could become the MCU’s worst-reviewed film, with some critics hailing the film as a refreshing new direction for the MCU and others criticizing its complicated storyline.
Despite its low Rotten Tomatoes score, that shouldn’t stop Eternals from having a huge opening weekend, given the Marvel brand is still strong among moviegoers; although current projections has the film not coming anywhere close to dethroning Thor: Ragnarok title from 2017 for the best domestic opening weekend for an MCU film: ($122.7 million).
Eternals is slated to open with previews on Thursday, November 4, and in 4,000 theaters screens across the U.S. and Canada on Friday, November 5, including several specialty theaters from IMAX to D-Box/4D screens, which should inflate its box office take.