Having rebounded ever so slightly over the weekend to retain a barely Fresh rating of 60% on Rotten Tomatoes, Eternals has managed to outrun the ignominy of being the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first Rotten installment on the aggregation site, at least for another few days.
The 26th entry in history’s most commercially successful franchise arrives in theaters on Friday, where it’s looking to cast the middling critical reactions to one side and put a massive dent in the box office. This being the MCU, we can almost guarantee that’s going to happen, but the real question is how high it can fly.
Last month, Eternals was pegged as having the potential to become the pandemic’s first $100 million debutant, but those estimates have since been revised. However, according to Box Office Pro, it could yet manage to dethrone Venom: Let There Be Carnage to score the highest-grossing opening weekend since 2019.
As per the latest tracking, Eternals is heading somewhere in the $67-92 million range, but obviously, there’s a pretty big swing in those estimates. The higher-end feels unlikely given how drastically the buzz has been muted, but we’d be foolish to bet against anything being put out there by Kevin Feige’s cultural juggernaut.