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Well, this is a surprising start for the first two big films of Summer 2011. Marvel/Disney’s Thor 3D distributor Paramount opened on Thursday in Down Under thinking its Norse God would steal Fast Five‘s thunder from Universal, which opened its street car racing pic the day before. Didn’t happen. Day Two of Fast Five beat Thor by 38% — $2.02 million U.S. dollars vs $1.5 million U.S. dollars — even though both films are playing in the same number of theaters (220), Fast Five is only 2D so can’t command the higher 3D ticket prices, and Thor‘s lead Chris Hemsworth is Australian. Universal is crowing that its Day 2 of Fast Five was ahead of Iron Man 2 and Spider-Man 3 and its cume there is now $4.43 million U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, also today, Fast Five‘s previews in Korea are running 34% bigger than Fast And Furious (the fourquel in the franchise). In North America, Fast Five opens April 29 and Thor on May 6.
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That’s OK. International box office is only play money anyway.
I’m sure the Thor fans were all busy watching Ang Lee’s Hulk. Thor looks so very bad. Eye wateringly bad. Fast 5 actually looks pretty decent in the trailers. We’ll have to wait for Captain America and X Men Origins for the real super heroes.
Hmm have to disagree, Thor’s currently 91% on RT, only 2 bad reviews so far – rottentomatoes.com/m/1197233-thor/
I saw Thor on a screening and it was surprisingly good. Trailers were abomination, just garbage. But the movie is really charming and Hemsworth carries it like a pro. What bogs it down a bit is Earth cause Asgard stuff is aces, wastly superior.
I currently live down under and saw Thor last night. Great flick, almost as good as the first iron man. I was skeptical going in of the mixing of mythological God’s in a contemporary present day setting, but it was done hilariously. Visual’s were great too.
You sound like a lowly exec with that kind of thinking.
Relax, I was being sarcastic. The smiley face was winking at ya.
Scott Stuber deserves all the credit for Fast and Furious franchise at universal. if not for him this never would have happened at that studio when the first film was made .
What a great time to be Australian!!!
Can’t believe we’re not getting either of those films for another week here in North-America.
And disney starts to worry… Not so easy, is it rich?
To be fair, I think Rich Ross has very little control over Thor, although I’m sure Disney is very concerned about it.
Sweet! Looks Like The Fast Is Off To A Fast Start! Can’t Wait To Check It Out!
Holy fuck, did you mean to write that?!
Guy above me is an idiot – look at the Avatar numbers then try and continue with that idiotic statement.
There’s a reason why Fast Five is owning Thor in Australia – it’s a better film. I enjoyed Thor immensely, but I enjoyed Fast Five far more.
Call it brainless, call it popcorn, call it whatever you want really… I was entertained, so most certainly got my moneys worth.
Better film has nothing to do with people`s choice to see something before they know one is better than the other (they don`t read reviews and how many tims really rettible movies outgrossed good ones? Many.). Thor had terrible trailers, isn`t one of the most popular superheroes outside of America, and superhero movies don`t make nearly as much bank overseas as franchises such as Harry Potter, POTC, Avatar, LOTR – epic fantasy and epic sci if. It`s a really good movie but general audience does not go to RT to check out the fresh rating.
OTOH, Fast Five is an established franchise, had trailers that sold exactly what its fans want to see and The Rock casting was a good stunt. So overall, when you compare what each had to offer in their previews, FF breats Thor.
Also, expect both to do HUGE numbers these next few days… Thanks to a multitude of public holidays, most of us are off until Wednesday next week – cinemas are always full to the brim on these days, so I’ll no doubt be expecting Fast Five numbers to be increasing quite significantly.
That’s…shocking, to say the least. Considering North American box office is in the middle of one of the worst slumps in years, Marvel must be hoping that audiences here treat Fast Five the way they did Scream 4.
Universal’s entire livelihood is built around the Fast & Furious franchise, it’s actually quite sad. With the exception of a couple other franchises, it’s the one that pays the bills. Everything else they churn out is garbage that flops at the box office. So I wonder what their long term plan is since the 6th will be the last.
If by play money you mean money that trumps domestic grosses and is increasingly relied upon to recoup these big budget films
If by winking emoticon you mean sarcasm?
Well we all know they’re only the “bomb factory” with every movie except Borne sequels, F&F sequels, and Illumination pics.
I’ll admit that I do want to see Fast Five so I give the people putting the ingredients together credit (Duane Johnson being the most inspired bit). The car/chasm reveal in the trailer was WAY too much though and that poster is currently tied with Fox’s X-Men UK one as the worst of the year so far.
Check your facts. Kevin Misher found the original New Yorker article and made it happen. Stuber was exec for the first one and the disappointing and potentially franchise killing second. Then Kirschenbaum, Justin Lin and Chris Morgan saved it.
It will be interesting to see if this happens to any extent over here, but it should also be remembered that Australia is and long has been car crazy. That’s why they made the Mad Max movies over there, as well as films like Dead-End Drive In, etc.
Hemsworth is not a movie star, Portman is used up, what’s this her 4th film released in a 6 month spam?? And Richard B reminds me of a documentary on a dusty old library and the wonders it hides, on PBS.
Is this a bad omen for Thor 3D? It’s been getting some tepid reviews and people are quickly tiring of the 3D fad.
Since when is a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes considered tepid?
Since that 91% comes from just 23 reviews, including on 2 top critics.
Tickets are expensive and people are tightening their budgets, so in a summer full of superhero flicks, why rush out to slog through ‘Thor’ or ‘Green Lantern’ when you can sit back and save your money for ‘Captain America’?
I don’t think you know what “tepid” means.
If there were only two reviews available, and both were positive, it still wouldn’t qualify as “tepid”.
Was feeling like the only one who looked at the THOR marketing and concluded this was a corny, skippable, predictable movie but it looks like an entire continent agrees.
And based on his wooden, canned “performance” in Star Trek calling Hemsworth an “actor” seems to be a bit of a stretch.
Fast Five’s trailer is excellent and thrilling.
I agree that Thor looks silly. I cringed during the “I’m putting this on facebook” line during the trailer. IMO Very by the numbers with no chances but will see.
I saw the 91% on RT but I’ve learned a long time ago that you can’t go by what other people say. Source Code comes to mind. Rave reviews etc for an average film.
I disagree about Hemsworth performance in Star Trek. Thought he did a good job considering the short screen time. People can still recall the scene. Having said that, I saw Red Dawn remake and he wasn’t good. It will be interesting to see how Thor turns out. Can’t do the 3D anymore.
Thor is a good movie. Saw it at the screening and was surprised. It`s also terribly mis-marketed. I don`t know whose idea was to push Kat Dennings`s annoying comic relief in previews for a badass superhero movie, while keeping really good villain almost invisible, but that obviously backfired. OTOH, FF was pushing “The Rock and Vin in the same movie OMG!!!” factor which is sheer brilliance because that`s what people want to see when they watch F&F movies. Badass actors doing badass things. Simple, effective. Exactly what Thor trailers should have been doing – show this new character do badass stuff instead of centering the marketing around some lame supporting character.
I have seen Fast & Furious 5 twice already and the film is AWESOME.
The crowds in the 2 sessions that I have attended were going off and loving the thrill ride that this film is.
The audience was fully pumped on the way out, so expect this film to continue to pull in the crowds with this great WOM film.
There are a lot of Petrol Heads down under–no doubt they would turn out bigger for Fast Five. You also have to consider Tall Poppy Syndrome down there, but I would hope that the Hemsworth’s are still too new for that to happen…yet.
F&F5 will own Tor in intrnl. BO these few weekends. Even I excited about 5 and I haven’t seen any part other than 1 one (which I strongly disliked). But Rock being in rare badass form makes difference.
At $1.5 million, how does Thor’s opening day compare to films like Iron Man, Star Trek, and Incredible Hulk (and any other Thursday tentpole openers)?
You’re being overly harsh to the above comment. Fast Five IS off to a good start; comparisons to Avatar are totally unfair and irrelevant.
Although it’s too early to pronounce this the end of the superhero era, I wonder what would happen if the next several comicbook movies tank given that it seems half of all big-budget films scheduled to be released over the next year or so are in that genre.
Would it be enough to bankrupt any studios or are they all owned by such large congomerates that they can absorb hundreds of millions of dollars in flops?
On another note, I’m happy to see another 3D movie tank.
Dude the movie has not even tanked lol, you cant say that yet, the movie will be amazing, who cares about fast five, its the same crap we’re been seeing in every other one.
Currently on Rotten Tomatoes, Fast Five has a 78% fresh with 18 reviews, and Thor has a 91% with 23 reviews. Thor will bank big time. Fast Five fanbase is 15 to 21 year old male street car racer wanna be’s, who are only big in Asian metros, Australia,and California. Thor’s is 6 to 35 year old males, WORLDWIDE.
Rottent Tomatoes is a joke with fake and real so called critics paid by studios to either demolish or promote a movie, and it seems that bribes are flowing in to pump the awful Thor.. and I bet Captain America and Green Lantern will be pumped up by studios the same because they are as much awful movies, all trailers revealed that they are the result of some real lazy work.
Fast Five, the Fast&Furious franchise spans from 10 to 65+ year old people as its target audience.
Thor is pretty limited instead and targets little kids and teenagers more but it’s so lame and bad executed overall that it’s going to bomb as it deserves.
Jim, you promise to kiss the underside of my shaftony when you are wrong? Man, those over-ratin’ critics! Dark Knight 94%, Star Trek 94%, Iron Man 94%. Wow, they are really out of the loop when it comes to pop culture! They have such bad taste in what the general population likes! Man, those films didn’t make anymore or much more than 300 million worldwide each!
Jim, are you angry because every other movie in the Fast francise has gotten a rotten and didn’t do so well after the first week because the general populace agreed they sucked too???
Considering Fast & Furious opened to $70+ million two years ago, I think you underestimate its appeal to an extent.
Only thing good about FF is the cast diversity. Paul Walker seems to take a backseat to The Rock and Vin D. Not too many $100+ big budget films out there starring two minority leads. Think Bad Boys – 2003 was the last one.
Interesting to see if Vin D still has it. The Rock’s Faster didn’t do to well and Paul Walker isn’t a box office draw by himself.
But again, as someone stated above, part 4 (FOUR) made over 70 million in the first weekend in North America. Despite what the leads do solo, this franchise brings people in.
Well yeah, look at that stupid poster.