Why Love & Thunder's Box Office Beat Ragnarok (Despite Worse Reviews)

Warning! SPOILERS for Thor: Love and Thunder.

Despite mixed reviews, Thor: Love and Thunder has performed better at the box office than its predecessor Thor: Ragnarok. The fourth movie in the Chris Hemsworth-helmed franchise and the second to be directed by Taika Waititi has grossed $143 million in North America, compared to Ragnarok's $123 million. It continues a promising summer trend for movie theaters, following the impressive performances of Top Gun: Maverick, Jurassic World Dominion, and Minions: The Rise of Gru.

It also continues a promising trend for the Thor franchise, which has gone from strength to strength in box office terms. Each movie performs better than the last, with the first Thor opening in 2011 with takings of $65 million. Thor: Love and Thunder reunites Thor with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) to face off against Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale.) It retains Ragnarok's winning combination of comedy, pathos, and goofiness, but for some critics and audiences, Thor: Love and Thunder has been a case of diminishing returns, despite its strong box office performance.

Despite falling slightly short of Marvel Studios' projected $150 million, Thor: Love and Thunder has significantly topped Ragnarok's box office performance in 2017. Globally, Thor: Love and Thunder opened ahead of expectations with $159 million, bringing the movie's opening weekend total to $302 million. This strong performance is in the face of mixed reviews and audience feedback that has led to the Thor movies attaining the MCU's worst Rotten Tomatoes average. Here's everything that audiences need to know about the disparity between Love and Thunder's critical and commercial performance.

Why Thor: Love & Thunder's Reviews Are Worse Than Thor: Ragnarok's

After the more serious, and occasionally pompous tone of the previous two Thor movies, critics praised Taika Waititi for highlighting the inherent comedy and sense of wonder in a space Viking with a magic hammer. Ragnarok was also lauded for having a colorful visual style that was actually reminiscent of the pages of a comic book, something previous Thor movies - and, indeed, MCU movies - had avoided with their more Earth-based grounded superheroes. All of this is present in Thor: Love and Thunder too, including a scene set on a realm without color, upending Waitit's colorful vision of Ragnarok. However, where Waititi's irreverent sense of humor and fondness for improvisation freshened up the Thor franchise in Ragnarok, critics and audiences are already growing tired of his approach.

Thor: Love and Thunder's reviews were divided on the merits of Waititi's approach to the movie, citing the tonal inconsistencies between huge comic characters like Russell Crowe's Zeus and the more serious and theological themes at the heart of Gorr the God Butcher's storyline. It's led some critics to conclude that this tonal disparity means that neither the comedy nor the more serious elements work together in a satisfying way. Where the comedy elevated Ragnarok, reviews claim that the comedy in Love and Thunder makes too flippant a film to tackle its big issues of cancer, responsibility, and religion.

How Thor: Love & Thunder's Opening Box Office Beat Ragnarok's

The Thor franchise's box office history attests that each new movie performs better than the last. It was therefore incredibly likely that Thor 4 became the highest-ever opening for the Thor franchise, despite what audiences may learn from the Thor: Love and Thunder reviews. While it doesn't have the return of a Patrick Stewart or an Andrew Garfield as in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or Spider-Man: No Way Home, there's still much to entice audiences to Thor: Love and Thunder.

Taika Waititi's continued involvement is a key factor, as his star continues to rise through producing popular shows like Reservation Dogs and Our Flag Means Death. Given the poor state of the franchise following Thor: The Dark World, audiences may have been less keen to take a risk on a third Thor movie on the opening weekend. After the positive word-of-mouth, and the tremendous critical and commercial success of Ragnarok, audiences knew what to expect from Thor: Love and Thunder and were keen to see more Thor movies from Taika Waititi following Ragnarok. As the only original Avenger with his own franchise, there's also a fondness for Chris Hemsworth's Thor from those raised on the MCU from the very beginning that generates loyalty at the box office.

Why Thor: Love & Thunder's Reviews Didn't Hurt Its Box Office (Yet)

Mixed reviews of Thor Love and Thunder represented by Thor image with Rotten Tomatoes icons

Generally, critics don't impact the opening weekend performance for big franchise movies like Thor: Love and Thunder. There's a hardcore audience for these movies globally, who want to be among the first to see them, to avoid spoilers on social media. There have been frequent debates about whether critics are out of touch with the tastes of audiences, or if that even matters, exacerbated by social media campaigns from fervent fans. This is summed up by how MCU audiences campaigned on social media to win Spider-Man: No Way Home the Fan-Favorite Oscar that eventually went to Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead.

However, poor reviews can still impact the Thor: Love and Thunder box office performance with the more casual viewers of MCU movies. This audience group isn't queuing up on the morning of release for a new MCU movie. In the wake of the pandemic, some audiences may still be cautious about which movies they decide to see in theaters. Reviews that call Thor: Love and Thunder flippant or disposable aren't likely to sell the movie to these audience groups, who may opt to wait for Thor: Love and Thunder to arrive on streaming.

How Much Will Thor: Love & Thunder Make?

Thor Love and Thunder Box Office 2022 Comparison SR

Of the two MCU movies released so far in 2022, Thor: Love and Thunder is the second highest-opening night of 2022, just behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The Sam Raimi-directed Doctor Strange sequel grossed $36 million during Thursday night previews, compared to Thor: Love and Thunder's $29 million. While $7 million isn't a huge difference, the gap between an original Avenger like Thor and the Sorceror Supreme Doctor Strange's sequel movies widens when looking at their opening weekend figures as a whole.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness opened with over $187 million domestically, compared to Love and Thunder's $143 million. There's a similar difference between the two movies' international box office openings, with Multiverse of Madness grossing an impressive $262.4 million compared to Love and Thunder's $302 million. A heatwave affecting a key market like the UK may have led to a dip in theater attendance over the opening weekend, but Thor 4's $40 million gap suggests that it's unlikely to surpass Multiverse of Madness' lifetime gross of over $93 million. While Thor: Love and Thunder is currently on track to surpass Thor: Ragnarok's lifetime gross of $853.9 million, the less positive word-of-mouth may yet see the fourth Thor movie's box office fall short of its beloved predecessor.

NEXT: Love & Thunder Sets Up A Thor 5 Villain Who Makes Thanos Look Weak

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