Thor continues cinema’s return with $302m global gross

Thor: Love and Thunder raked in $302m in global box office gross ($143m US) to lead all films this weekend, as fans continued to return to cinemas.

The Marvel Studios/Disney superhero flick also earned £12.2m in the UK/Ireland including Thursday previews, according to data from Comscore.

The earnings make it the third-biggest US box office opening this year, behind Universal’s Jurassic World Dominion and Disney’s own Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and make it already the 10th-highest grossing film of the year.

Minions: The Rise of Gru took second place this weekend as it crossed the $400m global box office mark, helped by an impressive reported opening in France of $7.1m.

Cinemagoers have returned to theaters this Spring as Covid restrictions eased around most of the world, driven by the releases of big-budget superhero movies and the return of nostalgic franchises.

Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick surpassed $1bn in global box office last week (and earned another $38.5m globally this past weekend) to lead all films this year ahead of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($953m), Jurassic World Dominion ($876m), and Warner Bros’ The Batman ($771m).

The cinema industry expects big box office numbers to continue rolling in throughout the year, especially for potential blockbusters such as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Marvel Studios) and Avatar: The Way of Water (20th Century Studios, also owned by Disney).

As founder and CEO of Vue, Tim Richards stated at DCM’s upfronts last week: “We are back, we are not going anywhere, and we are winning.”