‘Thor: Love And Thunder’ Strikes $29M In Thursday Night Previews, Second Best Of 2022

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Thursday night audiences made a date with Disney’s Thor: Love and Thunder, which took in $29 million from showtimes that began at 3 p.m., making it easily the second-best preview figure in 2022 behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness‘ $36M.

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And for those studios trying to puff up their preview numbers with Tuesday or Wednesday night showtimes, Thor: Love and Thunder‘s cash is pure Thursday night ticket sales. Take note.

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Thor: Love and Thunder‘s previews are also the fifth biggest for an MCU title behind Avengers: Endgame ($60M), Spider-Man: No Way Home ($50M), Avengers: Infinity War ($39M) and Doctor Strange 2.

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Projections earlier this week had the Taika Waititi-irected fourthquel doing between $140M-$160M. Critics, despite being over the moon with Waititi’s reboot of the Marvel superhero with 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok (also the highest-opening and -grossing installment in the franchise at $122.7M, and a $315M final in U.S.-Canada), have soured on this installment at 68% fresh.

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That said, word is fans will still love Love and Thunder and show up. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score stands at 85% to Ragnarok‘s 87%.

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Given how the MCU devotees show up on Thursday night, when it comes to a Marvel title, you always have to wait it out to see how frontloaded it is, or whether it’s lassoing another ticket sales stratosphere. For example: though Avengers: Age of Ultron had a lower preview number of $27.6M next to Doctor Strange 2, it wound up posting a higher weekend take of $191.2M.

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Ditto for Black Panther, which did $25.2M in Thursday night business and flew to a three-day total of $202M (granted, that was over a four-day Presidents Day weekend). Still, look for Love and Thunder to easily give Oscar winner Waititi his biggest opening weekend ever.

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Oh, and the fourthquel’s gross last night is also double what Ragnarok raked in from its previews which were $14.5M. Previews repped 31% of that’s movie’s $46.4M opening day.

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In terms of Love and Thunder pre-sales figures, the pic came in at $48M, which though behind Doctor Strange 2‘s $85M (that pic coming off the halo of Spider-Man: No Way Home) is ahead of Jurassic World Dominion‘s $40M, Top Gun: Maverick‘s $38M and The Batman‘s $42M on the Thursday before opening day.

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Currently, Doctor Strange 2 has the best opening of the year at $187.4M, followed by Jurassic World: Dominion‘s $145M. That latter pic only raked in $18M off combined 4 p.m. Thursday-night and earlier-week previews. Clearly, Love and Thunder‘s weekend has to overshoot the dinosaurs’ gross.

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Meanwhile, Illumination/Universal’s Minions: The Rise of Gru had a fantastic week following its July 4th-record four-day opening of $123M. Each weekday has seen double-digit-million grosses with Thursday taking in $10.3M, off 24% from Wednesday, for a first-week gross of $164.5M. That’s only 1.1% behind 2015’s Minions.

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