There’s been a lot of questions being asked of Marvel Studios as Phase Four progresses, and while some fans are happy to continue sitting back and going along for the ride, Thor: Love and Thunder continues to set unwanted benchmarks that could cause genuine concern should the franchise continue on its current trajectory.
In its second weekend in theaters, the Odinson’s fourth solo adventure dropped a huge 68 percent to finish the weekend in first place with a $46 million haul. That’s on a par with Spider-Man: No Way Home and Black Widow, as well as a single percentage point behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but two of those three titles opened much higher, and the third was released as a Disney Plus hybrid.
When you factor in a Rotten Tomatoes score that puts Love and Thunder above only Eternals and Thor: The Dark World, as well as a joint second-worst CinemaScore alongside Multiverse of Madness, then you can understand why skeptics are wondering if the wheels are beginning to wobble on the all-conquering MCU.
Of course, Taika Waititi’s irreverent intergalactic oddity is destined to make a ton of money before it leaves theaters having passed $500 million globally after 10 days in release, but it won’t help matters that the next installment out of the gate is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which faces near-insurmountable pressure as the sequel to a $1.3 billion-grossing cultural phenomenon that nabbed a Best Picture nomination, and that’s without mentioning the impossible challenge of replacing Chadwick Boseman as the face of the series.
