Buzz
After over a week of release, Thor: Love and Thunder is reporting promising revenue. However, audiences are clearly divided into two camps when it comes to the film's quality.
In the first half of 2022, Marvel Studios released two superhero films: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder, each with contrasting styles. Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) belongs to the intellectual elite with profound insights into life, while Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is bold, outward-looking, and action-oriented.
Audiences inevitably have preferences between these two films or favor one superhero over the other. This favoritism can be relatively gauged through box office revenue. In its first weekend, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness earned $450 million from global box offices. Released two months later, Thor: Love and Thunder brought in $290 million from cinemas worldwide.
The opening revenue of Thor: Love and Thunder being only 64% of Multiverse of Madness indicates Thor's inferiority to the Sorcerer Supreme in winning over audiences. This discrepancy is partly due to Multiverse of Madness being a significant milestone in building the Marvel multiverse, while Love and Thunder serves more as a lighthearted advertisement before the impending serious developments. On the other hand, audiences are becoming increasingly discerning towards pure flashy superheroes.
Marvel Studios' fifth most expensive film ever produced
As of July 14th, exactly one week since the first early screenings, Thor: Love and Thunder has amassed a global box office revenue of $329.2 million, as reported by Box Office Mojo. With this achievement, the fourth solo adventure of the Thunder God has secured a spot among the top 10 highest-grossing films of 2022.
Earlier this week, Variety disclosed the hefty investment Marvel Studios poured into Thor: Love and Thunder project. The cosmic journey crafted by director Taika Waititi cost $250 million to bring to life. This figure surpasses most of the superhero flicks the studio has produced, trailing behind only Avengers: Endgame (2019), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avegners: Age of Ultron (2015), and Captain America: Civil War (2016) - films featuring multiple key members of the Avengers ensemble.
Thor: Love and Thunder features only one Avenger, Thor (Chris Hemsworth). The narrative revolves around personal adventures, light on contributing to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe storyline in the Fourth Age. The decision to invest a quarter of a billion dollars into Thor: Love and Thunder demonstrates Marvel Studios' favoritism towards this superhero.
Marvel Studios' confidence in Thor is well-founded considering Thor: Ragnarok raked in nearly $854 million at the global box office against an estimated budget of only $180 million (a 4.7-fold increase) and received positive feedback from critics and audiences alike, heralded as a rejuvenation of Thor's cinematic journey. Following Ragnarok, this iteration of the Thunder God continued to evolve across two Avengers installments, garnering widespread acclaim.
With a whopping $250 million budget, the breakeven point for Thor: Love and Thunder hovers around $650 million. However, with the global cinema circuit recovering post-pandemic, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness recently grossing $954 million at the start of summer, this has never been a concern for Marvel Studios. The question now is whether Thor: Love and Thunder can join the MCU's billion-dollar club.
Losing Audiences due to... Losing Brains
After one week of release, the rating for Thor: Love and Thunder on the film scoring website Rotten Tomatoes has taken a downturn. Among the group of critics, the positive feedback ratio for the film has dropped to 67% from the initial 72% upon release. In the eyes of critics, Thor: Love and Thunder is being grouped together with Thor (2011) and Thor: The Dark World (2013) - or the most disappointing films from the superhero universe.
This also marks a setback for the Thunder God's standalone film franchise, especially since Thor: Ragnarok received up to 93% positive feedback and ranked among the highest-rated works of the MCU. Not only among critics, the positive feedback ratio from audiences for Thor: Love and Thunder has also slightly decreased compared to Thor: Ragnarok, now standing at 80% as opposed to 87%.
The Prince of Asgard now resembles Cinderella after midnight, having to return to a darker present. Taika Waititi was once the fairy godmother, bringing wonder to the God of Thunder, but that magic has somewhat faded now.
The decline of the Thunder God's reign after just a portion of the film has left audiences wondering why. The answer to that question seems to lie in the plethora of flashy, over-the-top promotional images of Thor: Love and Thunder. Remember, when the official poster for the film was released online, audiences looked at each other in confusion, wondering 'Is this for real?'
Even the film's title, with its expanded 'love and thunder' motif, feels somewhat cheesy and out of place compared to the MCU's trend of grandiose titles in recent times like 'infinity battles,' 'endgames,' 'Legends of the Ten Rings,' or most recently, 'multiverse mayhems.' In summary, before the fourth standalone Thor film hit theaters, audiences were 'content warned' that this would be a wild, comedic, and extravagant journey in line with the spirit of Taika Waititi's works or the Ragnarok film that came before.
However, it would have been more beneficial for audiences if Thor: Love and Thunder had been labeled as a 'brain-off' superhero film from the start. Is it humorous? Yes. Entertaining? Certainly. But what about substance? Nothing really sticks. Sharing with the press, Taika Waititi once said the central theme of Thor: Love and Thunder is the mid-life crisis as characters struggle to find new purpose in life.
The image of Thor - the solemn Prince of Asgard burdened with countless responsibilities - was once criticized as dull. However, the brawny Thor, with his muscles leading the way over his mind and sometimes behaving as if he just fell from the sky in Love and Thunder, struggles to garner audience approval.
Complete relaxation turns Thor into a wandering vagabond, taking monster-fighting as a pastime. The character also appears incompetent in grasping situations and seizing opportunities in dire circumstances. In his fourth standalone adventure, Thor regains his valor but also loses some of his wisdom.
It remains unclear whether in the future, when drawn into the multiverse battle, the superhero's image will undergo yet another transformation to catch up and absorb the vast knowledge that Doctor Strange has accumulated. For now, with Thor: Love and Thunder, the portrayal of the superhero makes viewers feel disconnected, as if he and that profound knowledge are not meant for each other.
Audiences favor a youthful and humorous version of the Thunder God, but they don't want a superhero with graying hair. In the eyes of many esteemed filmmakers, and a portion of the audience, Marvel superhero films are merely crafted for entertainment and profit-making. Thor and Thor: Love and Thunder, sadly, seem to fit this description. The film disappoints due to its lack of depth, presenting a cast of potentially rich characters but failing to fully explore their depths.
Image source: Disney, Marvel Studios
