Box Office: Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts*’ Rolls in With $31.5 Million Opening Day, ‘Sinners’ Scoring Another Superb Hold


Box Office: Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts*’ Rolls in With $31.5 Million Opening Day, ‘Sinners’ Scoring Another Superb Hold

May 3, 2025 8:23am PT Marvel’s “Thunderbolts*” will easily top the weekend box office after cracking a $31.5 million gross across Friday and preview screenings from 4,330 theaters. That puts the ensemble action piece, which follows a ragtag team-up of Marvel’s least superpowered personalities, on pace to land within projections for a domestic opening between $70 million and $75 million. The movie also gets a boost in grosses from Imax and other premium-large format auditoriums. It’d be a sizable start for what could be described as a new franchise (though most of the “Thunderbolts*” heroes have already debuted in other Marvel Cinematic Universe entries). But it does demonstrate Marvel Studios‘ diminished event status at the box office. Should projections hold, the new release will land one of the lower openings of the MCU. It’ll also likely fall below the opening of “Black Widow” ($80 million), which starred original Avenger Scarlett Johansson and introduced “Thunderbolts*” stars Florence Pugh and David Harbour, as well as “Guardians of the Galaxy” ($94 million), another comedy-skewing ensemble that introduced moviegoers to a team of misfit heroes. In terms of recent comps, “Thunderbolts*” is pacing behind Disney’s previous Marvel outing, “Captain America: Brave New World,” which flew to a $40.9 million opening day back in February, on its way to an $88 million three-day. That movie had more brand recognition with the “Captain America” moniker, but also bad reviews and a rough reception among fans. It finished its run with a meagre 2.2x multiplier, ending up at $200 million in North America. The hope for Marvel is that “Thunderbolts*” may open smaller, but will hold much stronger. The comic book brand drew some of its most positive reviews in some time for this new entry. Audiences are positive too, with moviegoer pollster Cinema Score turning in an “A-” grade — compare that to the MCU-low “B-” earned by “Brave New World.” At a production cost of $180 million, plus another $100 million to market and distribute, “Thunderbolts*” needs to resonate globally and show significant staying power to turn a profit theatrically. Along with Pugh and Harbour, “Thunderbolts*” also stars Marvel stalwart Sebastian Stan, as well as Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen, Lewis Pullman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Jake Schreier directs.