Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts* will hit theaters this Friday, with early tracking predicting a $175 million global opening to launch the summer box office. That places it slightly behind Captain America: Brave New World, which debuted with just over $192 million worldwide. However, Thunderbolts is earning significantly stronger reviews, and positive word of mouth could give it staying power in the weeks ahead.
Thunderbolts* is projected to draw between $70-$75 million domestically and another $90-$100 million internationally. The film follows Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) as they are forced to unite on a dangerous mission. Lewis Pullman plays Bob, a superpowered individual also known as The Sentry. Julia Louis-Dreyfus also returns as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who seems to be pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Although an opening of $175 million is pretty damn good, it’s not exactly reaching the levels of Marvel’s glory days. The franchise has been struggling lately, with only Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Deadpool & Wolverine standing out as clear box office successes in Phase Five. Still, the future looks brighter, with The Fantastic Four: First Steps generating real excitement and the Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars teasing that they may recapture some of that Infinity War/Endgame magic.
Our own Chris Bumbray enjoyed Thunderbolts*, finding it a “significant step-up” from Captain America: Brave New World. However, he cautioned that it’s not the “game-changer” that some of the early reactions suggested. “With Marvel movies, the first wave of reviews almost always fall prey to too much hype,” Bumbray wrote. “Even still, I had a better time with Thunderbolts than any other Marvel movie (outside of Deadpool & Wolverine), in recent memory (I’d wager Guardians 3 was the last great one). Granted, the bar hasn’t been too high recently, but this is very decent and hopefully moves the franchise back in the right direction, where we actually can start investing in new characters and having favourites again.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.
