THOR: THE DARK WORLD HAMMERS OUT $86.1 MILLION IN DEBUT

Those admittedly optimistic predictions by some analysts that Thor: The Dark World would bring in more than $100 million at the box office failed to materialize this weekend. Disney estimated that the movie actually opened with $86.1 million. That was still a considerable improvement over the first Thor’s $65.7 million, and indeed the sequel might have crossed that $100-million mark if the same percentage of people who paid the 3D surcharge to see the 2011 film had done so for the new one. According to BoxOfficeMojo, moviegoers who plunked down the average $4 premium to see the original Thor in 3D accounted for 60 percent of ticket sales. This time they accounted for just 39 percent. That original film also faced some solid holdover and new counterprogramming competition; the new film had virtually none. There was a virtual three-way tie for second place, with Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, Free Birds, and Last Vegas each earning slightly more than $11 million. Final results will be announced later today (Monday). But last week’s No. 1 film, Ender’s Game, plunged to fifth place with around $10.2 million, down a whopping 62 percent from its debut.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Rentrak:
1. Thor: The Dark World, $86.1 million; 2. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, $11.3 million; 3. Free Birds, $11.1 million; 4. Last Vegas, $11.1 million; 5. Ender’s Game, $10.2 million; 6. Gravity, $8.4 million; 7. 12 Years a Slave, $6.6 million; 8. Captain Phillips, $5.8 million; 9. About Time, $5.1 million; 10. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, $2.8 million.