'Thor: Ragnarok' — Thunderous Opening Weekend Makes The MCU A Record-Breaker

Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok reinvented the Thor franchise for 2017. Ditching the faux-Shakespearean style of the first two films, Waititi created a laugh-a-minute superhero comedy. Naturally, all eyes are on Ragnarok's box office performance now the film's released domestically. And here's the exciting thing: The movie is exceeding all expectations, and has even made the MCU a record-breaking film franchise.

'Thor: Ragnarok' In The Box Office

The movie launched to a strong start on Thursday night, and by Friday had grossed $46.8 million domestically. It continued to exceed expectations its opening weekend, earning a staggering $121 million in the domestic market against a predicted $117 million. That easily makes Ragnarok the highest-performing Thor movie to date. More to the point, it also gives the film a place in the MCU's top 10 opening weekends.

As you can see, Ragnarok joins just seven other Marvel movies with an opening weekend exceeding $100 million. Marvel will be particularly delighted to note that all three of this year's releases — Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and now Ragnarok — broke that milestone.

Ragnarok's box office performance is enough to make the MCU a record-breaker. Marvel's movies are officially the first ever franchise to break $5 billion in the box office, soaring past the Star Wars ($3.3 billion) and Harry Potter ($2.6 billion) franchises. It's a remarkable success for what began as a risky self-financed project back in 2008, but has now become one of Disney's most powerful brands.

And things get even better. The 17th film to be part of the MCU, Ragnarok continues Marvel's perfect streak in the box office. Every single one of the MCU movies has hit the number one spot in the box office. Meanwhile, measured against other opening weekends this year, the film actually powered its way into the top five.

Disney will be delighted to see that their films took four of the top five slots this year, with Beauty and the Beast winning the top spot. What's more, we're clearly nowhere near the point of superhero fatigue just yet, with four superhero films finding their way into this year's top six. The figures are simply breathtaking, and give a sense of just how powerful the superhero genre has become.

As is often the case with #Marvel movies, the film released on international markets October 24th. That means this domestic total is added to the foreign to already give Ragnarok an absolutely staggering $427 million worldwide.

Taika Waititi's fresh approach for the God of Thunder has clearly been a box office success, wowing critics and earning an electrifying 93% on Rotten Tomatoes' critic score. It's been helped by a fresh, innovative marketing campaign that's centered around the gladiator match with the Hulk and the destruction of Thor's hammer, two plot threads that have got fans seriously excited. Right now, the film looks set to be another high-earner for the House of Ideas, and it's taking the #MCU on to record success.

(Source: Box Office Mojo)