The good news just keeps coming for Marvel’s God of Thunder.
Buoyed by stellar reviews, not to mention that overly impressive debut overseas, Thor: Ragnarok is now well on its way to box office stardom. Initial forecasts claimed Taika Waititi’s threequel would open to $100 million on home turf – a domestic haul that would place Ragnarok just behind Justice League, for the record – but one way or another, we’re now learning that the threequel’s grand total is expected to soar past $400 million before the weekend is out.
Not only is Thor: Ragnarok poised to dominate North America on Friday, but the spacefaring Marvel blockbuster will also expand into a number of crucial markets across the globe – namely China, Japan, Germany, Russia and Mexico – shifting its projected cume north of $400 million. That’s a spectacular debut by anyone’s standards, but the fact that the first Thor movie grossed $449 million six whole years ago really puts things into perspective. Indeed, if the MCU was ever at risk of franchise fatigue, it doesn’t show.
Making matters more interesting is Thor: Ragnarok‘s lofty score on Rotten Tomatoes. The review aggregator recently crowned Ragnarok as the highest-rated entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe – no mean feat, mind you, given it’s the seventeenth film in the superhero saga.
It’s no wonder director Taika Waititi is beginning to drop hints about working with Marvel on a future project. The New Zealand filmmaker is currently one of the most sought-after creators in the business, and though his zany Black Widow pitch might be too much of a stretch, it’s nigh on certain that Waititi will be back working within the MCU sooner rather than later. Other Marvel characters are still on the table, it seems, though Taika Waititi will likely stick with Thor. And can you really blame him?
Ragnarok is expected to whip up a box office storm when Marvel’s God of Thunder descends into US theaters on Friday, November 3rd.