Joe D’s article | May 4, 2025 | Nbprime
Driven by good word-of-mouth and great fan engagement, Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts is off to a fantastic start, heading toward a $73M–$77M opening weekend. Roughly $32 million was made by the picture on Friday, including $11.5 million from Thursday previews. It is projected to beat early predictions.
Especially with a robust 71% “definite recommend” score on PostTrak and a 96% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Thunderbolts indicates a good comeback to form in a post-Covid box office environment, even if it is lower than recent MCU highs. Headlining the cast, which has been a major factor in audience turnout, are Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Sebastian Stan.
Though compared to Captain America: Brave New World ($88.8M opening), Thunderbolts is demonstrating good holding potential over the summer. Seventy-five percent of those polled stated they would see a sequel; 53% mentioned the Marvel brand as their main motivation for going.
Of ticket sales, 39% were from Imax and PLF formats; 3D presentations added another 11%. With AMC Dine-In Disney Springs in Florida leading with a $106K single-location gross, the picture did particularly well in East Coast, Mountain, and West Coast areas.
Warner Bros.’ Sinners, in second place, is expected to make $33 million in its third weekend, a record third frame for a horror film, beating It’s $29.7 million. The Minecraft Movie, on the other hand, stays robust in third, generating $13M in its fifth weekend.
Rounding out the top five are Until Dawn with a modest $3 million haul and Amazon MGM Studios’ The Accountant 2 with $11.2 million in its second weekend.
Opening this weekend, Nicolas Cage’s The Surfer is expected to make $750K at 1,085 theatres; Alec Baldwin’s Rust had a poor start with only $25K across 115 theatres.
With summer starting, the projected total weekend box office of more over $145 million is encouraging for Hollywood. Although Thunderbolts might not equal the spectacular beginnings of pre-pandemic MCU films, its good response indicates a consistent beginning to a full blockbuster season.
