Scott Conquers Thor, But It Still Hammers Away to the Top Box Office Spot

Scott relishes a sweet prediction victory with Thor: The Dark World, but then hopes you don't notice what he predicted for The Best Man Holiday.

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Having been out in theatres for two weeks now, Thor: The Dark World managed to land in first place both weekends domestically, and has been tearing it up in the overseas box office as well. The sequel to the 2011 Thor has already pulled in $146 million domestically and $387 million across the globe. It has been getting all of the attention lately, and only has a few more days before the much anticipated sequel to The Hunger Games comes out.

If you have been following my Thor predictions so far, you may know that I was way off with my first week prediction and have made it my personal mission to vanquish the foe that is Thor. I am proud to announce that after being off by an absurd $20 million for its opening weekend prediction, I nailed its second weekend haul of $36 million, as it suffered a drop of 57%. While it is not the worst drop in the world, it is not a great depreciation, especially considering the competition it is about to face. Still, it is proving to be a franchise that can stand on its own feet outside of The Avengers.

Debuting this weekend was The Best Man Holiday, the sequel to the 1999 movie The Best Man. That is a long time to wait for a sequel, and the choice to do the follow up proved wise as it came in second place this weekend with $30 million. This is a great number, considering many projections had it topping out at $25 million at the most. The majority of the audience were females, and African-Americans represented approximately 87% of viewers, which shows that there are audiences hungry for quality movies that don’t consist of predominantly white casts.

Nebraska, a movie directed by Alexander Payne and starring Bruce Dern, opened in four theatres this weekend and did an impressive average of $35,000 per theatre. There is some Oscar buzz around this film, which has helped it out, as well as being a product of Payne who has a slew of quality movies under his belt as well as two Oscars. Because of its black and white format, it is hard to predict how it will do with audiences if it expands into mainstream theatres.

Also on the limited release front, Dallas Buyers Club landed in twelfth spot this weekend after it expanded from 35 to 184 theatres. In its expansion its theatre averages became quite diluted, as they fell 50% from $18,249 per theatre last week to $9,518 this weekend. It is possible that this film may never make it to nationwide expansion as it looks like audiences may not be as into it as the critics are.