Thor: Love and Thunder enjoyed immense success in its first opening weekend; Credits: Disney

Thor: Love and Thunder have been a great success in the box office collections this month. It is the 4th movie in the Thor franchise that has established Chris Hemsworth's career as the Asgardian superhero and landed as a hit in the theaters. 

The Disney movie has made over $143 million with its release and the Marvel character is now once again making waves. Playing in over 4380 North American theaters, the film was quick to pass the $150 million soon after its release. The first opening week collections were themselves so noteworthy that it figures if the Thor franchise continues to expand on its storyline. 

Also worthy of mentioning is the fact that the fourth standalone Thor movie even surpassed its predecessor Thor film, Thor: Ragnarok, which was released in 2017. The film had managed to amass $123 million in North America. 

Now Love and Thunder have managed to succeed as the third film with the biggest opening weekend this year and falls just behind Jurassic World Dominion, which gathered $145 million, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which gathered $185 million. 

If considered globally, Love and Thunder easily helped the summer season collections of theaters, which went beyond the mark of $2.27 billion in collections. The amount is 217% more than the previous year and only 12% less than 2019, which was the last normal year for cinema before the pandemic hit. 

Love and Thunder also managed to make a few records in international cinema as it exceeded expectations with a grand $159 opening in about 47 countries. The global collection mark has well surpassed $302 million. 

The male audience constituted more than half of the ticket sales with 60% audience being men. Its production and promotion costs have been well covered by the box office collections around the globe. 

The film's wide popularity is also helped by the format of release. Audiences flocked in major numbers to see the film in Imax, 3D, and other specialized formats. The premium formats account for 36% of the total revenue collected around the globe.

 The Imax format alone helped to add around $23 million to the ticket sales of Thor: Love and Thunder around the globe, out of which $13.8 million came from North America theaters alone. The original Thor series had begun with a nominal  $65 million collection in 2011. It is safe to say the franchise has grown gigantically since then. 

Thor is closely following behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness when it comes to popularity and ticket sales if not at par with it. Another Marvel favorite of the time continues to be Spider-Man: No Way Home, the latest Tom Holland starrer movie. 

Adding to the popularity of Thor: Love and Thunder are the brief appearances of the Guardians of the Galaxy, although it is primarily a stand-alone superhero movie. Yet the film managed to score the 12th biggest starting weekend sales of the 29 film-franchise that Marvel brings with its collection. 

The film was directed by Thor: Ragnarok film director Taika Waititi who again excelled in the making of Love and Thunder. The story takes after the myth of the Norse god, played by Chris Hemsworth. 

The god pairs with Jane Foster, his former partner played by Natalie Portman, who herself has a hammer to wield as her weapon and is also the Mighty Thor. They have joined forces to fight against Gorr the God Butcher, the otherwise harmless-looking villain played by Christian Bale. The villain comes with a sinister agenda to rid the world of any and all divine things. 

While the film has enjoyed immense success at the box office, the popularity score fell short of the love received by Ragnarok. Love and Thunder could only score a little less than the predecessor when it came to critics and audience rankings. 

While Ragnorok has a solid 93% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes and an A- on CinemaScore, Love and Thunder managed to collect only about 68% on Rotten Tomatoes and B+ on CinemaScore. 

Many other movies have also been released in the past few months of July and they managed to earn some good opening weekends. Minions: The Rise of Guru earned $45.5 in its first opening weekend from Friday to Sunday. The fifth addition to the Despicable Me franchise, the film adds to the impressive $210 million collection of the film at the domestic box office.