After a solid early international start, Thor: Love and Thunder followed with a roaring start stateside with Thursday night previews. Taika Waititi's second outing with the god of thunder drew fans out Thursday night, raking in an impressive $29 million at the box office purely off of sales that evening. It marks the second-largest box office preview number of 2022, behind only its MCU counterpart Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness at $36 million, and the fifth-largest in the history of the MCU.
Moreover, Love and Thunder easily struck down its much-beloved predecessor Thor: Ragnarok in the preview department. That film only grossed $14.5 million in previews en route to a $46.4 million opening day. The new Thor has easily cracked that opening mark through pre-sales alone, which reached $48 million — better than Jurassic World: Dominion's $40 million and Top Gun: Maverick's $38 million, though nowhere close to Multiverse of Madness's $85 million. With domestic projections for the film's opening weekend sitting at around $140 million to $160 million as part of a projected $300 million global opening, the MCU is sitting pretty for another blockbuster topper, and Waititi's about to capture his biggest box office opening yet.
Everything so far points to Love and Thunder overtaking the latest Jurassic World film to capture the second-best opening of the year, assuming estimations about the film's opening aren't woefully underrated, as was the case with Minions: The Rise of Gru. Jurassic World: Dominion raked in $145 million in its opening, a number that certainly seems passable for Thor, though Multiverse of Madness's $187.4 million will require a lot from the film to overcome. That film was also helped considerably due to being a direct sequel to the multiversal chaos of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The impressive early returns at the box office come despite Love and Thunder's less than stellar reception from critics, who currently have it at 68% on Rotten Tomatoes. Considering how successful Waititi's last date with Thor was (93% critic score), it feels like a step back, even though audiences seem to have appreciated the film overall. The real test now will be to see how the film sticks around in the box office compared to Ragnarok.
Led once again by Chris Hemsworth, the latest Thor movie also features Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Jaimie Alexander, Russell Crowe, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper along with Waititi himself reprising his role as Korg. That cast is sure to have excited what with the much-hyped return of Portman as Jane Foster, who now takes on the mantle of Mighty Thor, among so much more. Waititi co-wrote the film with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.
Thor: Love and Thunder is currently playing in theaters.