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By Rebecca Rubin
LOS ANGELES, July 17 (Variety.com) - Marvel's "Thor: Love and Thunder" managed to fend off three new nationwide releases to remain the No. 1 movie in North America.
Though ticket sales for "Thor" cratered in its second weekend, falling by 68% to $46 million from 4,375 theaters, the latest installment in Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe easily towered over a trio of newcomers: Sony's literary adaptation "Where the Crawdads Sing," Paramount's animated "Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank" and the Focus Features period drama "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris." After 10 days on the big screen, "Love and Thunder" has generated a sizable $232 million at the domestic box office.
For "Thor," the fourth superhero adventure to spotlight Chris Hemsworth as the Asgardian god with abs that won't quit, a concerning 68% decline is signaling the movie is not breaking out beyond the comic book empire's (still very robust) fanbase. Though "Love and Thunder" will certainly end its box office run with a tidy sum, it's not ideal for a film of "Thor's" size and scope to lose the majority of its audience after opening weekend. It's one of the biggest second-weekend drops in MCU history next to "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," which tumbled 67% in its sophomore outing. (Disney's "Strange" sequel film went on to earn a mighty $411 million domestically). By comparison, recent Marvel entries like "Eternals" dipped 61% and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" fell 52%.
Among newcomers, "Where the Crawdads Sing" easily scored the best start. The page-to-screen adaptation debuted in third place with a better-than-expected $17 million from 3,650 cinemas. That's an impressive start for this kind of movie, especially at a time when television has become a haven for literary favorites. And Sony spent just $24 million to produce the film so it won't be impossible to turn a profit.
"In past years, dramas of all kinds were a workhorse genre," says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. "But attendance patterns have changed and most of these stories are now produced for the small screen. That makes this opening particularly good."
Critics and audiences had vastly different reactions to "Where the Crawdads Sing," which holds a bleak 36% on Rotten Tomatoes but a solid "A-" CinemaScore from moviegoers. With positive word-of-mouth, however, the movie has the potential to stand out to people who aren't familiar with the best-selling book by Delia Owens. Olivia Newman directed the movie, which centers on a young girl named Kya (starring Daisy Edgar-Jones from "Normal People" and "Fresh"), who grows up alone in a North Carolina marsh and later is engulfed in the murder trial of a former love interest. Reese Witherspoon produced the movie, which features a new song from Taylor Swift called "Carolina."