'Thor: Ragnarok' box office impressive, gives Marvel another hit

The “Thor: Ragnarok” box office numbers show Marvel has another success on its hands. “Thor 3” made an estimated $121 million in its opening weekend. Those are the domestic numbers, with the movie estimated to have earned an additional $306 million in foreign markets. That brings the opening weekend to a total of $427 million in estimated ticket sales.

A report by Box Office Mojo states that the production budget for the film was estimated to be around $180 million, suggesting it has already turned a profit during the opening weekend.

That’s great news for the franchise, as well as Marvel Studios, as this is one of the films that will help lead to the opening scenes of “Avengers: Infinity War” in 2018. It also continues a trend of successes by the films from Marvel.

Best Thor movie yet?

One of the most noteworthy aspects of the “Thor: Ragnarok” box office numbers is that they are far superior to the first two films in this series. The original “Thor” came out in 2011 and earned an estimated $65.7 million in its opening weekend, followed by an estimated $85.7 million for “Thor: The Dark World” when it opened in 2013. It appears that the Avengers films have helped this brand quite a bit.

The 17th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is expected that the film will quickly climb the list of the most successful films from the studio. The next movie on that list is “The Incredible Hulk,” which earned an estimated $134.8 million in the United States back in 2008. Then comes “Captain America: The First Avenger,” which earned about $176.7 million in 2011.

More news coming from Marvel

There were two scenes buried in the end credits of “Thor: Ragnarok” that will prove to be important later in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Those spoilers not only set up the beginning of “Avengers: Infinity War,” but also set the stage to bridge all of the movies that have come before that tentpole film.

First, though, “Black Panther” will hit theaters, giving more backstory to another important Marvel character.

It is expected that the “Thor: Ragnarok” box office is going to pass $200 million before the end of next weekend in the domestic markets alone. This could put it on track to make more than $1 billion worldwide if the word-of-mouth continues to be great. So far, audiences have given overwhelmingly supportive reviews of the film, which seeks to blend comic book action with comedy. Can it become one of the most successful Marvel films of all-time?