'Thor: The Dark World' thunders to No. 1 with $86-million debut

"Thor: The Dark World," starring Chris Hemsworth, easily ruled the box office this weekend. (Walt Disney Studios)

With its god of thunder "Thor" lighting up the box office this weekend, Marvel has struck again at the multiplex.

The 3-D sequel "Thor: The Dark World" debuted with a healthy $86 million, according to an estimate from Marvel distributor Walt Disney Studios. That's the fourth-highest opening of the year, but well behind another Marvel property, "Iron Man 3," whose $174-million debut is still the biggest of 2013.

Heading into the weekend, prerelease audience surveys suggested the comic book adaptation would debut with a minimum of $90 million -- and given strong early interest, even a $100-million launch didn't appear impossible. Of course, $86 million is still a great start -- significantly more than the $65.7 million the original "Thor" launched with in 2011. And although "The Dark World" cost Marvel Entertainment $170 million to produce, the film is likely going to do so well overseas that the studio will end up in good shape.

PHOTOS: 'Thor: The Dark World' Los Angeles premiere

And yet a film from the Marvel universe is held to exceptionally high standards. The first "Thor," which in the end collected $181 million domestically and $268 million abroad, wasn't viewed as a massive hit -- but it was the first film in a franchise, so it was given the benefit of the doubt. Now that the sequel has launched, it seems clear that the "Thor" movies are not destined to perform at the rate that the"Iron Man" films do.

This summer, audiences went crazy for Robert Downey Jr. in "Iron Man 3" as the film raked in an insane $1.2 billion worldwide. The movie no doubt benefited from the success of"The Avengers," which in summer 2012 became the top-grossing film of the year with $1.5 billion in global sales. "The Avengers" features both Iron Man and Thor, along with other Marvel superheroes such as the Hulk and Captain America. (An "Avengers" sequel is planned for release in 2015.)

Via: LA Times

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FIRST BOX OFFICE: Anti-Obama Movie #1

FRIDAY 2 PM: The anti-Obama movie 2016 Obama’s America went into wider release around America today and is opening right now in first place at the domestic box office. That’s quite a feat since the Rocky Mountain Pictures political documentary is still playing in only 1,090 North American theaters – or about 1/3 as many theaters as big-budget actioner The Expendables 2 (3,355 theaters). But these political documentaries like faith-based films are frontloaded. The Stallone picture from Millenium/Lionsgate is still expected to end the weekend #1 and should top the box office tonight. And, based on matinee trends, 2016 Obama’s America looks to gross $1.2M-$1.7M Friday for a $3.7M-$5.0M weekend. But right now it has grossed $700,000 today compared to $300,000 for The Expendables 2. Its new cume after this weekend could make it the #1 conservative documentary (ahead ofExpelled: No Intelligence Allowed’s$7.7M). The success of the anti-Obama pic is based on big pre-sales leading into the Republican National Convention August 27-30, and exhibitors are reporting busloads of filmgoers arriving at theaters around the country in pre-organized trips. It also employed much of the same marketing techniques used to garner attention and support for faith-based films, understandable since the audience is overlapping. Its campaign included advertising nationally over the past two weeks on talk radio and cable news channels including Fox News Channel, A&E, History and MSNBC.

Both online ticket-sellers Fandango and MovieTickets.com showed advance buying for 2016 Obama’s America were accounting for 35% to 28% respectively before this weekend. The pic is based on conservative author and commentator Dinesh D’Souza’s New York Times bestselling 2010 book The Roots Of Obama’s Rageand co-directed by D’Souza and John Sullivan and produced by Academy Award winner Gerald R. Molen (co-producer of Schindler’s List). It opened on July 13th in a preview on a single screen in Texas grossing almost $32,000 during its opening weekend, then expanded into 61 theaters including New York and Los Angeles. In August, the film widened to 169 theaters nationwide and expanded again this weekend. “Yes, I also didn’t believe it when I first saw the film taking off in pre-sales on Tuesday,” an exhibition insider tells me. “Because there’s not a lot of new product that’s taking off.”