Are the Thunderbolts heroes? To Marvel and Disney, they sure are.
For decades, the Marvel Cinematic Universe felt invulnerable. Practically every film would fly into theaters, bask in audience applause and collect enough money to buy half of Denmark. But the franchise has looked almost human lately: Sure, it still reliably lands its films at the top of our Movie Monday countdown, but fans have lamented their quality. The MCU was beginning to look a little soft.
So for Marvel, Thunderbolts* arrived in the nick of time.
The latest MCU film punched its way to a very solid $76 million in North America (according to early estimates, of course) which put it comfortably on top of the weekend’s box office. It did even better overseas, banking $86.1 million to push its worldwide one-weekend gross to a very tidy $162.1 million.
And here’s the supercharged kicker: Fans and critics (including this one) liked the thing. Thunderbolts* holds an 88% “freshness” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Compare that to the 48% RT rating that Captain America: Brave New World pulled in earlier this year. The fact that people actually enjoyed Thunderbolts* suggests that it might have a longer shelf life. And if so, that means that we might be talking about this flick for weeks to come.
Sinners, which had won the last two box-office titles here, slipped to second with $33 million in North America. But the film continues to hold remarkably well—slipping less than 28% weekend-over-weekend. Sinners has now earned $179.7 million stateside, and $236.7 million worldwide.
Meanwhile, 2025’s biggest film so far—A Minecraft Movie—continues to draw its own share of popcorn-eating (or throwing). The movie mined another $13.7 million domestically, building its North American bank account to a staggering $398.2 million. And worldwide? It’s at $873.4 million.
The Accountant 2 balanced its own spreadsheet with a fourth-place $9.5-million weekend. And the horror flick Until Dawn scared up another $3.8 million to close out the top five.
Looking down the list a bit, we find The Surfer wiping out with $674,560. That landed it in 11th place. Looks like Nicolas Cage’s latest indie film is well and truly beached.
The post Movie Monday: ‘Thunderbolts*’ Strikes Paydirt appeared first on Plugged In.
