THOR SEQUEL STAYS STRONG; BEST MAN HOLIDAY SURPRISES

Disney/Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World enjoyed a better-than-expected second weekend with an estimated $38.45 million in ticket sales. But the real surprise was the performance of Universal’s The Best Man Holiday, which brought in about $30.59 million, despite playing in slightly more than half the number of theaters as Thor: The Dark World. On a per-theater basis, Best Man collected $15,115 versus $10,011 for Thor. With solid sales during the week, the superhero sequel now stands at $147 million. But that figure is barely 31 percent of the total worldwide box office of $479.8 million for the movie, thanks to near-record-breaking international sales, which added $52.5 million to the pot this weekend. Nevertheless, this is destined to be the last weekend of Thor supremacy; next weekend The Hunger Games: Catching Fire moves into theaters, and the only question among analysts is, will it become the biggest box-office hit of the year? Among the also-rans this weekend, CBS Films’ Last Vegas placed third with about $8.65 million, just ahead of Relativity Media’s Free Birds with $8.3 million. Rounding out the top five was Paramount’s Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa , which took in $7.67 million. With receipts now totaling $90.20 million, the low-budget ($15 million) film could cross the $100-million mark domestically by next weekend.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Rentrak: 1. Thor: The Dark World, $38.5 million; 2. The Best Man Holiday, $30.6 million; 3. Last Vegas, $8.9 million; 4. Free Birds, $8.3 million; 5. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, $7.7 million; 6. Gravity, $6.3 million; 7. Ender’s Game, $6.2 million; 8. 12 Years a Slave, $4.7 million; 9. Captain Phillips, $4.5 million; 10. About Time, $3.5 million.