Thor: Ragnarok Scores $46 Million Friday; Weekend Total Estimates Increased

Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok is performing strong domestically, earning $46 million on its first day. Things have never looked better for Chris Hemsworth’s Thor franchise thanks to the overwhelmingly positive responses to the third outing. Ragnarok promised to shake up the “normal” conventions of the Thor franchise and has done so in large part because of the vision of Waititi, who brought a new, vibrant color palette to the movie and infused his natural comedic taste to have Ragnarok serve almost as a soft reboot for the god of thunder.


Ragnarok is finally out in domestic markets after a week head start given to some places overseas. The international numbers proved to be strong, and projections for its second weekend in combination with the domestic launch gave Ragnarok a chance to cross $400 million worldwide by the end of this weekend. These projections were based on a good domestic debut, and Ragnarok more than lives up to those expectations.


THR is reporting that late night Friday ticket sales point to Ragnarok having an opening day of $46.8 million. This figure includes the franchise’s best Thursday night preview numbers, and no surprisingly tops both of the previous Thor openings. Ragnarok is estimated to drop 12% today (equal to a $40M+ Saturday haul) and now finish the weekend between $115-$120M. These estimates lower the floor for Ragnarok after some estimates pointed to an opening weekend of $100M at the lowest. Ragnarok would have to have a substantial drop off to only meet those early estimates.


It is no surprise Ragnarok is already setting franchise-best marks at the box office, and this should only be the beginning of a hopefully impressive run. The continued weekend estimate is much higher than Thor: The Dark World‘s $85M opening and, instead coming in only slightly below Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s numbers from earlier this year. Considering Homecoming went on to have a $117M opening weekend and a 2017 superhero movie best $879.9M worldwide gross, it could be a good comparison for Ragnarok throughout its theatrical run.


Thor 3 will face some competition in a few weeks once Pixar’s Coco and fellow superhero blockbuster Justice League hit theaters, but it has a nice two to three week window (depending on the market) to make its mark. There has been a great response to the film already and the continued good buzz, combined with the film’s rewatchability factor, should give it decent legs despite the competition.