If at Cinemacon, the annual exhibitors’ convention in late April, someone had suggested that “Top Gun: Maverick”(Paramount) would likely have an ultimate domestic gross around double “Thor-Love-and-Thunder-2022-movie-posters/”>Thor: Love and Thunder” (Disney), it would have been regarded as a joke.Yet if at the same time, 143 million had been projected as the opening weekend for the latest Marvel release, the reaction would have been “let’s hope so.”That’s the needed context for looking at the weekend results.
It’s not irrelevant that the fourth “Thor” opened to 44 million less than “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” two months ago.
Or a little under the consensus 150 million projection (in a summer when most films have exceeded pre-opening guesses).Neither are trivial, but at the same time they’re not the main story.
143 million for a weekend after the two horrible years theaters have endured remains a huge number.
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