Thunderbolts (2024)

[tv echo]

As expected, Thunderbolts* fell to #2 on its third weekend out (behind the buzzy opening of Final Destination Bloodlines)...

THUNDERBOLTS* Will Be Dethroned By FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES At The U.S. Box Office This Weekend
By Josh Wilding   May 17, 2025
https://comicbookmovie.com/thunderbolts/thunderbolts-will-be-dethroned-by-final-destination-bloodlines-at-the-us-box-office-this-weekend-a219604#gs.lsxdrb 

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Thunderbolts* *The New Avengers was #1 for two weeks at the North American box office, but will be knocked from the top spot this weekend by Final Destination Bloodlines. 

The horror franchise's long-awaited return—which has been awarded 92% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a B+ CinemaScore by moviegoers—was always expected to win the weekend. After $5.5 million in previews on Thursday and a $20 million Friday, Deadline expects it to gross $43 million by close of business on Sunday.

This will be the best opening ever for a Final Destination movie, and while Sinners topped Thunderbolts* on Thursday, the Marvel Studios movie is eyeing second place and $16 million during its third weekend in theaters. That's a -50% drop, meaning the MCU movie is holding up well.

*The New Avengers branding has likely helped, and it should reach $154.8 million by Sunday, placing it 14% ahead of Eternals at the same point during its run. 

Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts* | Behind the Scenes of the Void Space
Marvel Entertainment   May 16, 2025

 

Edited Yest. at 02:50 PM by tv echo

[Makai]

On 5/5/2025 at 11:54 AM, BaggythePanther said:

Marvel is already changing the marketing,

  Reveal spoiler

revealing the Thunderbolts’s new name.

I’m curious to know someone’s perspective on the movie if they’ve been spoiled by the marketing.

I’m on that group and it’s the reason I almost didn’t watch in the theaters. I was hearing good things about the movie and am a big Yelena fan so was considering going opening weekend. However, the rest of the characters are either very meh or unlikable to me, so the New Avengers spoiler made me think I would be disappointed. 

Ultimately, I liked at lot of the character things (particularly Yelena and Bob), was disappointed in how they used Bucky, and disliked the larger MCU elements. So I guess the spoiler appropriately prepared me for the movie. 

On 5/15/2025 at 4:54 AM, shrewd.buddha said:

For about half of the movie the Thunderbolts appeared to be fighting and killing US military personnel - not a good look - although the military was being directed by a villainous CIA director. 

They were O.X.E not US military. Val couldn’t use her official resources to bury her still active connection to O.X.E. 

[tv echo]

Box Office: Thunderbolts crosses USD 300M globally, USD 150M in US; third weekend earnings breakdown here
Marvel’s Thunderbolts crosses USD 325.7M worldwide after three weekends, showing stronger legs than Eternals and Black Widow as it heads toward the USD 350M milestone.
Written by Seema Sinha   May 19, 2025
https://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainment/box-office/box-office-thunderbolts-crosses-usd-300m-globally-usd-150m-in-us-third-weekend-earnings-breakdown-here-1388404 

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Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts has crossed a significant box office milestone, surpassing USD 300 million globally and USD 150 million domestically after its third weekend in cinemas. Despite stiff competition and a notable drop in premium formats like IMAX, the ensemble superhero film led by Florence Pugh continues to hold steady in its theatrical run.

Over the third weekend, Thunderbolts grossed USD 16.5 million in the US, a 48.9 percent drop from its second weekend, bringing its domestic total to USD 155.4 million. Internationally, the film brought in USD 15.7 million from 53 markets, bringing its overseas total to USD 170.3 million. That puts the global cume at USD 325.7 million, with eyes now set on the USD 350 million benchmark next weekend.

While not quite on par with some of its MCU predecessors, Thunderbolts is still performing solidly in comparison. Its third-weekend domestic hold is better than several recent Marvel entries, including Black Widow (55 percent), Eternals (58.7 percent), and Quantumania (59.8 percent). Compared to early-phase films like Thor (55.5 percent) and The Incredible Hulk (56.7 percent), the film has shown relatively better legs, even as it trails behind the more resilient Iron Man (37.8 percent) and Shang-Chi (-37.6 percent).

Thunderbolts Writer Eric Pearson Explains the Marvel Film’s Surprising Original Villain
By Carlos Morales, Scott Collura   May 5, 2025
https://www.ign.com/articles/thunderbolts-writer-eric-pearson-explains-the-marvel-films-surprising-original-villain 

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“It was always the idea to follow Yelena Belova as the lead of this, which brought in Alexei [Shostakov aka Red Guardian],” Pearson tells IGN. “Ghost, I just always wanted to use her.”

Laurence Fishburne’s character Bill Foster from Ant-Man and the Wasp, who has ties to Ghost, was also in an early version of the script.
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“There was a version where Bill Foster was involved for a bit as part of the Ghost storyline, and there was a version at first where he was not involved and we brought him in I think in the second draft,” says Pearson. “But yeah, it was always [mostly] the same team from the beginning.”
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One major difference in earlier versions of the script was that Sentry wasn’t always in the movie, and in fact Russell’s John Walker was intended to fill the role of, as Pearson puts it, “the punching villain” at the end of the film.

“Valentina, as part of her manipulation of him, had convinced him that his super-soldier serum needed upkeep,” recalls the writer. “She was actually implanting this time bomb in him that was going to go off at some point. … And so he, in his own way, hulks out and becomes someone that they have to fight.”

The only problem was that another Marvel movie was also in the works at that point that also featured a character hulking out: Red Hulk in Captain America: Brave New World.

“It just didn't feel right [to do that],” says Pearson. “My goal … was ending this Marvel movie with a hug, not a punch. They were going to never win a fight against a Hulk character, so they were going to have to eventually just talk him down.”
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“If that's just heroic ambition and self-esteem on one side and depression and self-loathing on the other side, it works the same way,” says Pearson of replacing John Walker as the antagonistic force with Sentry. “And if we do that, then Bob and the Sentry and the Void are pretty much all of our characters' emotional journey wrapped up into one entity. … He was the ultimate person that they couldn't defeat in any physical way and needed to find an emotional solution for.”

Baron Zemo Was Originally In Thunderbolts* - MCU Writer Reveals Why The Marvel Character Wasn't In The Movie
By Nicolas Ayala   May 5, 2025
https://screenrant.com/thunderbolts-baron-zemo-cut-writer-explained/ 

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 In an exclusive interview with ScreenRant, Thunderbolts* writer Eric Pearson reveals a draft of the movie included Baron Zemo, who would have been revealed to be pulling the strings in secret. Pearson also mentions that Zemo would have "swapped places with someone," possibly Val's assistant Mel, with the help of a Widow's Veil. Pearson explains that Zemo didn't suit Thunderbolts*' premise and themes despite the villain's link to the team in the source material. As a result, Zemo was cut and Thunderbolts* shifted focus to Yelena, Sentry, Val, and the rest of the cast. Read Pearson's full comments below:

ScreenRant: We do see Baron Zemo a little bit in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and I know he's an important part of the team in the comics. Was there ever a version that included Baron Zemo, or did you quickly steer away from including him right off the get-go?

Eric Pearson: "To be fair, there was a version where we stopped at a kid's house who had just thrown a high school party, so I think Zemo was there at one point.

I think there was a version of a tag written a long time ago, kind of revealing who's behind it all. It was revealed that Baron Zemo was pulling some strings from prison or whatever. I might be just inventing things now, but I feel like there might've been a version where a tag where Zemo had broken out and swapped places with someone - maybe Valentina's assistant - and he was working with a Widow mask under.

But I think those ideas lived for one iteration and then died. Sometimes people think that we're zagging on purpose, and it's like, 'No, we know that Zemo is very integral to a different story version of them.' He's part of putting them together, and we negated the need for that with our very premise.

But we always think back to the comics. There's always the discussion of, 'Well, if there's a way to cleverly include Baron Zemo in this, he absolutely should be there.' But in this story that we wanted to tell and that we fell in love with, Yelena was central, and all of these people find their way through Yelena. And then we were introducing Bob as well, so he just didn't fit. We didn't want to just have a feathered fish." 

Edited 9 hours ago by tv echo

[tv echo]

Julia Louis-Dreyfus on her role in ‘Thunderbolts’ and whether she sees her character as a villain
CTV News   May 19, 2025