Marvel Studios is already raking in the money internationally with Thor: Ragnarok. The third installment in Chris Hemsworth's solo Marvel franchise is finally getting the acclaim that Thor has thus far eluded; the critical response to the film has been outstanding, with a certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes that sees it in contention for the best superhero film of all-time.
These accolades have largely been attributed to the new direction Ragnarok takes the franchise - much to the credit of Taika Waititi. The fun marketing (and the fact it features everyone's favorite angry green giant) have propelled Ragnarok's box office projections to new heights for the franchise, success we're already seeing care of the international release.
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Ragnarok has already opened in roughly half of its foreign markets and THR reports this weekend has taken in $107.6 million. This opening puts Ragnarok on pace to top several MCU installments, including Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Doctor Strange. Additionally, the film has posted the best October opening in several markets, including South Korea ($15.5 million), Australia ($8.4 million) and Brazil ($8.3 million). The U.K.'s $15.8M launch makes it the top territory this weekend.
This international launch is at the top-end of Ragnarok's early projections; it was previously estimated that Waititi's film would open somewhere between $85-$100M internationally. So, while the strong start is not surprising following previous reports of the film opening ahead of Thor: The Dark World and Doctor Strange, its scale means we can expect the prior domestic predictions to also be topped. The film has obviously been helped by a lack of competition, and with no tentpoles in the next couple of weeks, Ragnarok should continue to perform well.
Next week is the all-important domestic launch, but will also see the movie expand to influential foreign markets like China, Japan, and Mexico. The film is currently tracking for a launch over $100M domestically, but some estimates point to it going north of $125M. Any launch that is somewhat comparable to these projections will easily give Ragnarok the Thor franchise its best opening - it's just a matter of finding out how big it will be now.
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Source: THR
