The God of Thunder is about to make his presence felt at the domestic box office.
Figures relayed by The Hollywood Reporter have revealed that Thor: Ragnarok, Marvel and Taika Waititi’s imminent threequel, is now tracking for a $90m-$100m debut in North America across the weekend of November 3rd. To put that forecast into perspective, the original Thor and its sequel, The Dark World, opened to $65.7 million and $85.7 million, respectively, which only makes today’s revelation all the more impressive.
2017 has been a difficult year for film franchises, what with Transformers: The Last Knight, The Mummy and even Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales all underperforming across the board. Whether this has a bearing on Universal’s planned Dark Universe, an interconnected franchise featuring some of the most famous movie monsters in cinematic history, is another question entirely. But if there’s one Hollywood universe that isn’t struggling, it’s the MCU.
This is, after all, a box office juggernaut that continues to go from strength to strength, and by the looks of things, Thor: Ragnarok is about to become the latest feather in Marvel’s cap. Not that we haven’t seen this coming. When Taika Waititi first unveiled Ragnarok‘s teaser back in April, the footage accumulated upwards of 136 million views across the globe, putting it comfortably ahead of both Beauty and the Beast (127 million) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (112 million).
Besides, much like It, there’s a very good chance Thor: Ragnarok‘s domestic debut will blow past that $90m-$100m threshold, particularly when you consider that the early reviews have been nothing short of stellar. Heck, even Guardians director James Gunn has gone on record about Ragnarok being a blast.
That being said, Thor 3 still has a ways to go if it’s to topple Marvel’s other two films of 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($863 million) and Spider-Man: Homecoming ($877 million).