Thor: Love and Thunder previews are also the fifth biggest for an MCU title behind Avengers: Endgame ($60 million), Spider-Man: No Way Home ($50 million), Avengers: Infinity War ($39 million $) and Doctor Strange 2. Predictions earlier this week had the Taika Waititi-directed fourth quel costing between $140 million and $160 million. Critics, despite being over the moon with Waititi’s reboot of the Marvel superhero with 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok (also the biggest opening and grosser in the franchise with $122.7 million and a final $315 million in the US-Canada ), have collapsed. this dose at 68% fresh. That being said, fans will still love Love and Thunder and show up. Rotten Tomatoes audience rating is 85% compared to Ragnarok’s 87%. Given the way MCU devotees show up on a Thursday night, when it comes to a Marvel title, you always have to wait it out to see how loaded it is or if it makes another stratospheric ticket sales. For example: although Avengers: Age of Ultron had a lower preview number of $27.6 million next to Doctor Strange 2 , it ended up posting a higher weekend gross of $191.2 million. Ditto for Black Panther , which took in $25.2 million in Thursday night action and flew into a three-day total of $202 million (granted, that was a four-day Presidents Day weekend). Still, look for Love and Thunder to easily give Oscar winner Waititi his biggest opening weekend ever. Oh, and last night’s fourth-quel gross is also double what Ragnarok had from its previews of $14.5 million. Previews accounted for 31% of the film’s $46.4 million opening day. In terms of Love and Thunder pre-sales figures, the pic reached $48 million, which although behind Doctor Strange 2’s $85 million (this pic is coming out of Spider-Man: No Way Home’s halo) is ahead from Jurassic World Dominion’s $40. M, Top Gun: Maverick’s $38M and The Batman’s $42M Thursday ahead of opening day. Currently, Doctor Strange 2 has the best opening of the year with $187.4 million, followed by Jurassic World: Dominion’s $145 million. That last picture earned a combined $18 million discount from 4 p.m. on Thursday night and the previous week’s previews. Clearly, Love and Thunder’s weekend must surpass the dinosaur gross. “Minions: The Rise of Gru” Universal Meanwhile, Illumination/Universal’s Minions: The Rise of Gru had a fantastic week after its record-breaking four-day July 4 opening of $123 million. Each weekday has grossed in the double digits with Thursday taking in $10.3 million, down 24% from Wednesday, for a first week gross of $164.5 million. That’s only 1.1% behind 2015’s Minions.
