“Thunderbolts” features Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell and David Harbour as a motley bunch of antiheroes. Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays a malevolent CIA chief.
“This is a very good opening for a new superhero story,” said David A Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. With “excellent” reviews and audience scores, the film should “play extremely well around the world,” he said.
Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian said on X that “this kickoff film of the summer movie season will ignite an epic month of May for movie theatres!”
Ryan Coogler’s period vampire thriller “Sinners” starring Michael B Jordan slipped to second place but still took in US$33 million in its third weekend out, a showing The Hollywood Reporter called “phenomenal.”
Warner Bros’s video game adaptation “A Minecraft Movie,” starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, rose one spot from last weekend to third, earning US$13.7 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period.
It remains the top release of the year, with total US ticket sales of US$398.2 million and international sales of US$475 million for a total of US$873.2 million.
Fourth place went to Amazon MGM Studios’ “The Accountant 2”, at US$9.5 million. Ben Affleck plays a neurodivergent math genius with criminal ties, and Jon Bernthal is his hit-man brother.
And in fifth was another video game adaptation, Sony’s gory horror film “Until Dawn,” at US$3.8 million.
Meantime, Alec Baldwin’s ill-fated Western “Rust”- made infamous when a weapon held by Baldwin discharged a bullet, fatally wounding the film’s cinematographer — finally opened in a limited release of 115 theatres.
It took in just US$25,000, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Rounding out the top 10 were:
- “The Amateur” (US$1.8 million)
- “The King of Kings” (US$1.7 million)
- “Warfare” (US$1.3 million)
- “Hit: The Third Case” (US$925,000)
- “The Surfer” (US$675,000)