Thor: The Dark World

This is how you make an entrance.



Picking up on the conversation Joe Brody and I were having about possible concerns with The Dark World, it would seem that they're largely unfounded. The flick opened in 36-overseas markets to the tune of ~$109-million. Not a bad haul for a weekend. With a similarly sized opening here Stateside, it will break even out of the gate. Everything else should be pure profit.

Box Office Mojo said:

Thor 2's biggest markets were the U.K. ($13.4 million), France ($9.4 million), Mexico ($8.2 million), Brazil ($8.1 million), Germany ($7.9 million), Russia ($7.8 million), South Korea ($7.6 million) and Australia ($6.9 million). Across those eight markets, Thor 2 was up on average around 27 percent from the first Thor. This was also a little over half as much as Iron Man 3, which is the first of the Avengers follow-ups.

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Time will tell if Thor's second outing has legs overseas, but will the combined might of the Ninth Doctor and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) help break the proverbial bank in North America? Will visiting Odin's throne room at Disneyland draw in more skeptics?


Thor: The Dark World opens in the US on Friday. Will you be checking it out? Did you have your fill of Dark Elves in Hellboy: The Golden Army? Will Lady Sif abandon Asgard for Themyscira (nee Paradise Island)?


Success will guarantee a third outing, but, in my opinion, Thor got the nod for a solo film, not because he was an original Avenger, but, because it would end up being a bridge to Marvel's...um, galactic elements.

I've heard rumor this film had some issues during post-production, something about Marvel forcing the director to slim it down. Which lends credence to one review I saw saying it felt rushed at times. Regardless, I'll see it.

Great post.

Le Saboteur said:

Success will guarantee a third outing, but, in my opinion, Thor got the nod for a solo film, not because he was an original Avenger, but, because it would end up being a bridge to Marvel's...um, galactic elements.

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In my best, resident-forty-something-guy/Steve Rodger's voice:

Le Saboteur said:

Picking up on the conversation Joe Brody and I were having about possible concerns with The Dark World, it would seem that they're largely unfounded. The flick opened in 36-overseas markets to the tune of ~$109-million. Not a bad haul for a weekend. With a similarly sized opening here Stateside, it will break even out of the gate. Everything else should be pure profit.

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Glad to see the numbers. As an aside, don't studios only get less than half of the overseas box office? Interesting comparing the Mexico take to the German. Germany's getting to be an old country folks. Quick aside, you ever read box office guru? I thinks she's fairly conversational.

Le Saboteur said:

Thor: The Dark World opens in the US on Friday. Will you be checking it out?

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Yes indeed. It'll be our first full family movie night since Great Gatsby, and thankfully we didn't see Hellboy: The Golden Army. Speaking of Lady Sif, we've acknowledge that we've all signed on to the Marvel soap opera, with its growing pack of subplots.

Joe Brody said:

Great post.

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Joe Brody said:

Glad to see the numbers. As an aside, don't studios only get less than half of the overseas box office?

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I've read a few different versions of that idea, but the actual numbers seem to be muddled. Purposefully. I suspect that the House of Mouse has significant leverage to extract a larger percentage of proceeds if not the whole take. With the minimalist advertising that Thor II has received, I don't expect the advertising budget to be that large. Maybe $50-million tops. So, if anything, The Dark World's opening week take paid for the advertising.

Joe Brody said:

Interesting comparing the Mexico take to the German. Germany's getting to be an old country folks.

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Indeed. I believe that Germany's largest job growth is in elder care and its attendant industries. Many of those jobs are going -- of course -- to Africans.

Joe Brody said:

Quick aside, you ever read box office guru? I thinks she's fairly conversational.

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Once upon a time. And only briefly. It's been so long though, that I thought a dude ran the site? Unless, of course. you meant "she" in the nautical sense.

Joe Brody said:

Yes indeed. It'll be our first full family movie night since Great Gatsby, and thankfully we didn't see Hellboy: The Golden Army. Speaking of Lady Sif, we've acknowledge that we've all signed on to the Marvel soap opera, with its growing pack of subplots.

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I'd recommend giving Hellboy: The Golden Army a chance. I don't think you'd be disappointed. The visuals alone are worth the price of admission; or, a rental as the case may be these days.

kongisking said:

I've heard rumor this film had some issues during post-production, something about Marvel forcing the director to slim it down. Which lends credence to one review I saw saying it felt rushed at times. Regardless, I'll see it.

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Alan Taylor comes from teevee. Specifically, HBO. He started way back when with Homicide: Life on the Street; worked his way onto Sex and the City, Deadwood, Rome, & Carnivale; and, most recently helmed several episodes of Game of Thrones. With a resume like that, it isn't hard to see Marvel stepping in and asking him to trim the running time. I also don't see I being a huge problem. While I don't generally read reviews until after I see a movie, the scuttlebutt from the people Marvel really needs to please -- that's the people who read the comics -- has been overwhelmingly positive.

And so ends the direct responses. Check out the embedded video and meet me below.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/48DRGDiKo2U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Finished? Good. Did you hear that mostly female adulation? Yes, it's Comic Con. Yes, they waited in line for hours. Yes, they're insane. So, there might be a bit of confirmation bias, but women really, really seem to have taken to Tom Hiddelston's Loki. But I can back it up with the comments section from places like The Mary Sue, a female friendly pop culture site. It's that massive, and largely untapped, fanbase that will put The Dark World over the top.

You can put a fork in the idea of a fat, subterranean dwelling comic book reader. While they certainly still exist the desired demographic has shifted.

That said, teevee's Marvel's Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. might shape up to be Marvel's blunder. It's all too lighthearted. The ratings don't appear to have settled yet, but, I suspect, that if it hewed closer to the X-Files in tone it would have been gold.

Okay then. Taylor sounds like a reasonably talented fellow, so fingers crossed. Especially since he's been tapped for Terminator 5...

To Joe Brody, I second Saboteur's recommendation for Hellboy II. It's a marvelous movie, full of gorgeous cinematography, elaborate creatures, the classic Del Toro sense of humor, and has a really compelling villain. A personal favorite of mine.

Le SaboteurI'd recommend giving [I said:

Hellboy: The Golden Army[/I] a chance. I don't think you'd be disappointed. The visuals alone are worth the price of admission; or, a rental as the case may be these days.

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I'd second recommend that, too. (Or third it after kong!)

Howdy Doody's second appearance of 2008, too!

Montana Smith said:

I'd second recommend that, too. (Or third it after kong!)

Howdy Doody's second appearance of 2008, too!

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You know what they say. "There are no coincidences..."

I'm off to see the midnight show of Thor 2 tonight. Shall give my thoughts upon my return from this perilous quest.

I'm a satisfied customer. Took the family and saw it 2D with an animated crowd, with the trailer for Ride Along getting the biggest hoot. The new Catching Fire Trailer finally gets it right. I continued to have my family avert their eyes for the second half of the Winter Soldier Trailer, and I'm really on the fence for Hobbit II. But enough trailer talk, Thor 2 was thoroughly entertaining with solid comic relief. With two weekends and the weather turning in the East? It should do all right -- especially since they do a good job with giving quality content for the females in the audience (but I have a bone to pick on that issue which I will save for later).

La Saboteur called it on Tom Hiddleston. The New York Times gave him a good article this past Wednesday, and he's recognized as the bright spot in what seem to be pretty uniformly bad reviews for the film.

Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal trashed it -- but I liked the way he started his review by noting a fan's observation on film's official movie site about Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth being so beautiful it hurts.

. . . .and 'yes' I will check out HellBoy II. Gotta listen to y'all.

I fully expect a maniacal tidal wave of text lauding HB II once you've seen it, Brody. Do not disappoint me...

I enjoyed this film. It's certainly a light and fluffy movie, with almost too much humor at times (a couple jokes made me chuckle, but they do serve to undercut a lot of the dramatics moments, which, oddly, is a big criticism of Iron Man 3 that I simply didn't agree with). However, it makes up for that with an entertaining old-fashioned "gotta save the universe" comic-booky plot, some imaginative and colorful action scenes and aerial chases, and good performances from all (though Kat Dennings still is a tad too silly and goofy, like a Disney movie sidekick ).

But I am here today to proclaim to the world my man-crush on Tom Hiddleston. This guy is a walking, talking incarnation of likability off-screen, and on screen is fabulous at the whole enigmatic, damaged figure of unknown motives and undecided morality. Loki is the best what's-he-really-up-to? character since Severus Snape. He truly is the best thing about The Dark World, and if you think the fangirls are slavishly obsessed now, this film will turn them into utterly psychotic stalkers.

The only serious complaint I have to give is that Christopher Eccleston's villain is a by-the-number cliche "I'm evil and nothing else! Grr!" type antagonist. But I hear he actually had a more developed, interesting backstory and motivation that Marvel forced Alan Taylor to trim for timing, so I don't hold it against the movie. Eccleston does fine with his limited material, but he's just unmemorable in the finished product. Hopefully we'll get an extended cut later.

Overall, good fun and another endearing winner in the MCU canon. And how 'bout that sequence from The Winter Soldier in front of the 3-D screening I attended? Daaaaaaaaayum...

Entertained but not particularly impressed. Far too much humor during scenes that don't need it. Personally I think the amount of humor was played perfectly in Iron Man 3, but here it just got excessive. The villains felt a tad generic at times "oooh scary guys with scary floaty dark stuff will destroy the universe" For the amount of humor there was there were some violent parts that actually caught me by surprise, such as
SPOILERS
Thor getting his hand cut off and those grenades the Dark Elves use which are essentially tiny self contained black holes. /SPOILERS

I'm certainly excited for more I just wish they would choose who they are trying to appeal to instead of this imbalanced formula.

Joe Brody said:

I'm a satisfied customer. Took the family and saw it 2D with an animated crowd...

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Unfortunately, all screenings at the Toon Town Multiplex were sold out by the time I got there.

Lance Quazar said:

Unfortunately, all screenings at the Toon Town Multiplex were sold out by the time I got there.

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So the Aether is omnipotent and would destroy the universe if it had the chance. Heimdall is omniscient and can see ten trillion souls, but apparently not Odin. He's too busy watching you poop. And if not the naive Avengers, at least viewers have to assume from now on that Loki is omnipresent.

What powers and stakes could possibly top these, promised in the mid-credits scene apparently filmed at Spencer Gifts? Fans already rationalize why the Avengers don't assist each other in these movies. Now they're handed some Star Trek sized holes. This happens often in comics, and it makes for a solid movie. But when we look back, I think we'll see this is where people started losing interest in where the story arc is going.

Moedred said:

Fans already rationalize why the Avengers don't assist each other in these movies. Now they're handed some Star Trek sized holes.

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Sadly, so many people keep using plot holes as a nice excuse to call something horrible and written by hacks (Into Darkness being an especially depressing example). Breaking news: every single fantastical story likely has a huge plot hole of some sort, if you take the time to really study it. (*cough*ourownbelovedRaiders*cough*) It's almost inevitable. And so many people allow it to ruin what are otherwise well made movies. It boggles my mind, the snobbishness of some viewers. Yeah, I'm giving the classic "these are things you're not supposed to think about" argument, but most of the time that is absolutely true.

And besides, why can't we just assume Loki, being the flippin' God of Trickery and such, can't somehow bamboozle Heimdall's ability? He found ways to travel to other realms unseen by him before. This is a fine example of a plot hole that really isn't that terrible if one were to just use logic to solve it.

Moedred said:

And if not the naive Avengers, at least viewers have to assume from now on that Loki is omnipresent.

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And now he's getting his own spin-off movie?

kongisking said:

Breaking news: every single fantastical story likely has a huge plot hole of some sort, if you take the time to really study it. (*cough*ourownbelovedRaiders*cough*)

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Please explain further...

kongisking said:

why can't we just assume Loki, being the flippin' God of Trickery and such, can't somehow bamboozle Heimdall

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More like One Trick Pony (holograms) ...and everyone falls for it every time. If Thor's sympathy allows him to be 90% sure Loki's dead, that's cool. I'd love a scene where he tries to convince the others though. If Heimdall can see ten trillion souls minus one he should be on the team.

The difference with Indy is there are no powerful game-changing MacGuffins lying around at the start of each adventure. And for the most part he works to avoid unnecessary conflict. Indy boarded a Zeppelin when he had no other choice; the Avengers ride in flying aircraft carriers mainly so we can watch them go down.

Dr. Gonzo said:

Please explain further...

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I was referring to the infamous Big Bang Theory-discussed one. The fact you could even question that plotline shows a fundamental weakness in writing. Doesn't keep it from being a friggin' rocking movie. That's my point.

Did anyone wait around for the two - yes 2 - easter eggs at the end credits - looked like one newly introduced character resembled Benicio del Torro.

Q; Whats a mewling quim?

Colonel Winter said:

Q; Whats a mewling quim?

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If you have to ask, it rhymes with dining grunt.