We’ve been watching Eternals‘ predictions go up and down throughout the weekend. Some pointed to it underperforming with around $69M as its highest possible outcome, but it looks like it did keep pushing through and now ends the weekend on $71M. It is behind Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings‘ $75.3M but takes the fourth spot of highest-earning film openings of the year at the domestic box office. Including its international cume, it now stands at quite an impressive $161.7M with the pandemic still raging.
As of now, the top four releases of the year are Marvel-based properties with three of them stemming from Marvel Studios. The best opening at $90M is still held by Sony’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage film. There is a good chance the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home film might take the top spot before the year ends. Still, Eternals is the second-biggest international opening of any film during the pandemic which is quite impressive and shows that it simply has a stronger pull in other markets, especially South Korea.
Eternals numbers aren’t your usual Marvel Studios fair, as they commonly beat the lowest expectation. Yet, it’s not the first time it happened. Back in the day, Ant-Man also opened to the lower end of its expectations. There’s a strong connection to build-up and connectivity between the various franchises that may play a factor here. Plus, we’re still in the pandemic. The latest entry of the MCU seems to have an older audience in mind, which is currently still entering cinemas later than usual. Naturally, it’s behaving closer to an indie film on a larger scale given Zhao‘s touch and its reception by audiences. It’ll be interesting to see how it develops.
Source: Variety (Prediction), Variety
