As is tradition in the MCU (for the most part),Thor: Ragnarokis looking to conquer its box office competition again this weekend. As of last night, it’s already off to a pretty strong start, bringing in an admirable $18.2 million at the start of its second frame. That brings its total domestic take thus far up to some $173.2 million, just a bit shy of its production budget under directorTaika Waititi. Factoring in the global box office, however,Ragnarokhas already made back its money and then some—its worldwide total currently stands at $527 million.
It’s looking like a clear victory already for the latest Marvel production this weekend at the box office, but one should not necessarily sleep on the new releases. There’s currently a very tight race between this weekend’s two big openers, namelyKenneth Branagh’s stylish remake ofMurder on the Orient ExpressandDaddy’s Home 2,the unexpectedly resilient sequel to the 2015 original. The comedy is right now just barely beating Branagh’s whodunit with $10.8 million over theAgatha Christieadaptation’s $10.7 million. That’s a difference of $130,000 and though estimates haveMurder on the Orient Expresssqueaking past the sequel, this is really anybody’s game at this point if you excludeRagnarokfrom the conversation.
There’s less of a fight going on between the fourth and fifth place films.A Bad Moms Christmas, another surprisingly popular sequel to a comedic sleeper hit, is in the fourth slot with $4.1 million, whereasJigsaw, the umpteenth and hopefully last volume of theSawfranchise, is at fifth with $1.1 million. There’s enough of gap between Jigsaw and the sixth place movie,Tyler Perry’sBoo 2!, to make it likely that the horror flick will hold tight at fifth but this will certainly be its last weekend in the top five, as next week seesJustice Leagueentering the fray to knockRagnarokdown a peg, if only for a week.
Here’s your top five at the box office for Friday:
Friday Domestic BO
Total Domestic BO
1. ‘Thor: Ragnarok’
$18,284,000
$173,273,707
- ‘Daddy’s Home 2’
$10,880,000
- ‘Murder on the Orient Express’
$10,750,000
4. ‘A Bad Moms Christmas’
$4,115,000
$32,478,626
5. ‘Jigsaw’
$1,150,000
$32,084,093
