After just two weeks in release, Thor: Ragnarok has already vaulted its way into the 2017 worldwide box office top 10. The third installment in the Thor series has grossed $650 million worldwide, with $211 million of that coming in North America.


Directed by Taika Waititi, Thor: Ragnarok sees Thor (Chris Hemsworth) reuniting with his Avengers teammate The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) in an intergalactic gladiatorial arena run by the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum). Later, Thor and his new team of “Revengers” travel back to his homeworld of Asgard to do battle with Hela, the goddess of death (Cate Blanchett). Featuring more humor than earlier Thor films, Ragnarok has reinvigorated a corner of the MCU that was beginning to feel a little irrelevant alongside the goings-on in the main Avengers films, the Captain America series and Guardians of the Galaxy.


Thor: Ragnarok has proven that Thor – and the Hulk – can be box office champions when separated from the Avengers, grossing $650 million worldwide in two weeks of release, good enough for #10 on the 2017 box office rundown (via Box Office Mojo). Ragnarok has a good chance of surpassing Marvel properties Guardians of the Galaxy 2 ($836 million) and Spider-Man: Homecoming ($880 million) if it can keep up its box office momentum. It also has an outside shot at joining Beauty and the Beast ($1.2 billion), The Fate of the Furious ($1.2 billion) and Despicable Me 3 ($1 billion) as 2017 entrants in the exclusive $1 billion worldwide box office club.


Domestically, Thor: Ragnarok added another $56 million in its second weekend to reach $211 million overall (via Box Office Mojo), ranking it #9 for 2017. The film has a long way to go to catch the domestic box office totals for Guardians 2 ($389 million) and Homecoming ($334 million), and is a very long shot to pass Wonder Woman ($412 million) as the top-grossing superhero movie of the year in North America.


In just two weeks, Ragnarok has already shot past the box office totals for each of the first two movies in the series. The original Thor (2011) took in $449 million worldwide, while the sequel Thor: The Dark World grossed $644 million. With $650 million now tallied and many millions more to come, Ragnarok has vaulted the Thor series into a different level as a worldwide box office player.


It will be interesting to see how Marvel elects to go ahead with the Thor and Hulk characters after watching Ragnarok stomp the box office competition to this degree. Waititi certainly delivered the goods with Ragnarok, and says he is ready to take on Thor 4 (he even has an idea how the fourth Thor movie should start). Given the success of Thor: Ragnarok, it’s only a matter of time before Waititi is given the go-ahead on Thor 4.