'Thor' rumbles to top of B.O.

'Thor'

"Thor's" estimated $66 million domestic debut is a far cry from the thunderous $128 million-opening earned this time last year by fellow Marvel entry "Iron Man 2." But as a potential franchise kickstarter for Paramount, "Thor" ranks as one of the best, now the third-highest Marvel series launch ever, behind only "Spider-Man" and "Iron Man.""Thor," which earned 60% of its domestic bow from 2,737 3D screens and 214 digital Imax runs, added $46 million internationally to its worldwide weekend tally, lifting global figures to $242 million after just 11 days.The film's domestic opening exceeded Par's original expectations based on similar Marvel pics like "X-Men," "Fantastic Four" and "The Hulk" - all of which "Thor" already has outgrossed overseas. Though according to most other pre-weekend tracking services, "Thor" performed in line with solid opening weekend projections aimed at north of $60 million.With "Thor" poised to attract plenty of male moviegoers (it wound up skewing 63% male), the weekend's other big question mark was how well Universal's male-driven "Fast Five" would hold in its second outing.In the end, "Fast Five" dropped an estimated 62% - typical of franchise installments, but by no means desirable - grossing another $32.5 million for a Stateside cume to $139.9 million. That makes "Fast Five" this year's most successful film so far domestically, and with an added $185 million offshore total, the pic has cumed worldwide $325 million.Despite two major tentpoles in the market, the weekend's pair of femme-driven counterprogrammers, Sony's "Jumping the Broom" and Warner Bros.' "Something Borrowed," both debuted well to their core audiences, estimating $13.7 million and $13.2 million, respectively."Jumping the Broom," boosted by a strong faith-based component, well exceeded weekend projections, especially considering most B.O. pundits had predicted the Sony pic to land behind "Something Borrowed," which came in line with industry expectations. Both pics, thanks to manageable production costs, likely are headed toward profitable runs over the next few weeks, given female-targeted films usually play best during weekdays.Not so fortunate, however, was Summit's limited launch of Jodie Foster-Mel Gibson starrer "The Beaver," which kickstarted its domestic run this weekend at 22 locations, averaging a mere $4,745 per screen.The film cost a reported $21 million, but thanks to considerable foreign pre-sales, Summit, along with Participant Media and Imagenation Abu Dhabi, have limited vested interests in the film. Summit plans to expand "The Beaver" domestically on May 20, after it screens at the Cannes Film Festival. Pic's international rollout is slated to happen over the coming months.

Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com

Source: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118036560?categoryid=3762&cs=1&cmpid=RSS%7CNews%7CLatestNews

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