Most of the discussion that’s been generated by the superhero film Thunderbolts* revolves around a post-credits scene in which the titular group of antiheroes is re-branded as the New Avengers. This happens when the Thunderbolts* title appears on the screen, only to be abruptly removed and replaced with The New Avengers. This is how Marvel Studios began marketing the film following its opening weekend. However, the film is memorable for various reasons besides this clever marketing stunt. With a current stellar 88% Rotten Tomatoes rating and a 94% audience score, Thunderbolts* is now widely regarded as one of the best Marvel Cinematic Universe releases in recent years.
While Thunderbolts* has hardly become a blockbuster box-office success, as indeed, it is presently the third-lowest-grossing MCU release since the franchise’s inception, the film has nonetheless resonated more strongly than many of its predecessors with its dark themes and motley assortment of misfits and reformed villains who comprise the group of antiheroes. While virtually all the team members have previously appeared within the MCU, led by Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Thunderbolts* proves that the whole team is definitely greater than the sum of the parts.
‘Thunderbolts*’ Met Modest Box-Office Expectations
3
/5
- Release Date
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May 2, 2025
- Runtime
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126 Minutes
- Writers
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Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo
- Franchise(s)
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Marvel Cinematic Universe
Despite the blockbuster success of Sinners, Thunderbolts* was predicted to easily unseat it at the top of the box office in its opening weekend of release, with a projected domestic opening of between $70 million and $75 million, and a worldwide opening of between $160 million and $175 million. Thunderbolts* finished its opening weekend of release with a domestic gross of $74.3 million and an overseas gross of $86.1 million, for a worldwide opening of approximately $160.5 million.
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The closest comparable to the opening-weekend box-office performance of Thunderbolts* within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is the $75.3 opening in 2021 for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which finished its theatrical run with a worldwide total of just over $432 million. Moreover, going back to the $57.2 million domestic opening of Ant-Man in 2015, the $74.3 million opening only ranks above the $71.2 million opening of Eternals in 2021, and the disastrous $46.1 million opening in 2023 of The Marvels, which presently sits as the biggest MCU flop in history.
‘Thunderbolts*’ Has Stronger Box-Office Legs Than ‘Captain America: Brave New World’
Thunderbolts* is the first MCU release since Captain America: Brave New World, which finished its theatrical run with a worldwide gross of approximately $415 million. However, while Captain America: Brave New World had a domestic box-office opening of approximately $88.8 million, nearly $15 million better than Thunderbolts*, the largely negative reaction to the film heralded a steep box-office decline. In its second weekend of release, Captain America: Brave New World plummeted more than 68% to a second-weekend domestic gross of $28.2 million, the third-largest drop in MCU history.
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Thunderbolts* experienced a respectable 55% drop at the box office in its second weekend of domestic release with a second-weekend gross of $33.1 million, one of the smallest drops for an MCU release in the now 17-year-old franchise’s history. The 55% drop ranks just below the 54% second-weekend drop for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and the 53.5% drop for Thor: Ragnarök in 2017.
The smallest second-weekend drop for an MCU release is the 44.7% drop for Black Panther in 2018. The relatively modest decline for Thunderbolts* attests to both clever marketing and strong word-of-mouth support, which has put Thunderbolts* on a clear trajectory to comfortably surpass the $415 million worldwide total gross for Captain America: Brave New World, with the next achievable box-office target being the $476 million worldwide total for the 2023 MCU release Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
‘Thunderbolts’ Is a Valuable Addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Following its second weekend of release, Thunderbolts* has a current domestic gross of $128.5 million and a worldwide total of just over $272 million. With a $180 million production cost and a $100 million marketing cost, Thunderbolts* must gross at least $500 million at the worldwide box office to achieve profitability within its theatrical run. However, regardless of whether the film reaches this threshold, the overwhelmingly positive audience and critical reaction to Thunderbolts* suggests a healthy future for the distinctive Thunderbolts characters, beginning with their expected appearance in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, which is currently set to be released in May 2026.
Indeed, while the box-office performance of Thunderbolts* seems relatively insignificant within the Marvel Cinematic Universe when compared to the billion-dollar-plus grosses of Deadpool & Wolverine, Spider-Man: No Way Home, among several other MCU releases, Thunderbolts* has revitalized the MCU franchise by returning to the core principles of adventure and humor that audiences found to be increasingly lacking over the past decade within the MCU, for which the film has provided a badly needed injection of exciting new blood. Thunderbolts* is in theaters now.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
