‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Hits $80 Million at International Box Office

Disney’s Thor: Love and Thunder might be coming in at the lower end of box office projections domestically, but it’s poised to meet expectations in overseas markets. The Marvel superhero film has made nearly $80 million internationally through Friday, and is on track to surpass the projected $150 million international haul going into the weekend. Combined with the $69.5 million that the film made domestically on its opening day (including $29 million from Thursday previews), Love and Thunder’s worldwide gross currently stands at $149 million.

By Sunday, the film will have almost certainly made more than $300 million. Love and Thunder arrives amid divisive reactions and a worrying B+ CinemaScore from opening day audiences, and it’ll take all the help it can get as it attempts to recover its pricey $250 million budget and post a nice profit.

The film opened in 17 territories on Wednesday and expanded to several more markets on Thursday. By Sunday, Love and Thunder will be playing in over 90% of its worldwide markets. The film isn’t playing in China, Russia, and France, although it will debut in the latter country soon. Its biggest international market currently is Australia, with $7.9 million, followed by the U.K. ($7.5 million), South Korea ($6.9 million), Mexico ($5.7 million), and India ($4.8 million). It opened on Friday in Spain ($1.3 million) and Japan ($1.5 million). Love and Thunder is pacing ahead of Top Gun: Maverick, Jurassic World Dominion, and Thor: Ragnarok, but behind fellow Marvel sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

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Starring Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder, Natalie Portman as the returning Jane Foster, and Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher in his MCU debut, Love and Thunder is the fourth film in the Thor series. It also continues the irreverent rebranding of the character, which was initiated by director Taika Waititi in 2017’s Ragnarok and bled into Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Both those films, combined with Ragnarok, catapulted the former sourpuss character’s popularity into a whole new realm.

The first Thor film, released in 2011, feels almost quaint by comparison. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, it tapped out domestically with $181 million and finished with a worldwide haul of $450 million. Thor: The Dark World was long considered the weakest film of the MCU, but still managed $206 million in North America and $644 million globally. Ragnarok remains the top-performing Thor film, with $315 million at the domestic box office and over $850 million worldwide.

Thor: Love and Thunder is currently playing in theaters. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.