After a somewhat disappointing debut and the third-lowest first Monday in MCU history, Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts* has rebounded (momentarily, at least) with a strong Tuesday haul of $7.5 million at the domestic box office.
Thanks to a 49% jump from Monday, the antihero team-up film now sits at $86.8 million in the US and $172.9 million worldwide on a reported production budget of $180 million (before marketing costs).
Earlier this week, Marvel began the process of rebranding the movie as The New Avengers. The marketing campaign is believed to have kicked off a little earlier than planned when the opening weekend numbers came in, but it sounds like it was always set to begin shortly after the movie hit the big screen.
“It felt like, if Val is also trying to pull a switcheroo and sell the New Avengers to the world, we could do that, too,” director Jake Schreier explained to The New York Times in a recent interview. “Especially given that the asterisk has been on the movie for a year, hopefully it doesn’t feel sweaty — it feels like this was a plan and we built up to it.”
“It’s very fun [Marvel was]open to embracing that,” the filmmaker added. “It’s so interesting in this world, and Kevin [Feige] talks about it sometimes, where sometimes they wanted things to leak and they don’t. I think we all assumed that it would be a bigger part of the conversation already, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens.”
Marvel Studios hasn't officially changed the movie's title to The New Avengers, and is simply "spelling out the asterisk" as part of a new marketing push. It seems to have paid off, but it's also worth noting that a lot of people may simply have been waiting for Discount Tuesday before going to see it!
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In Thunderbolts*, Marvel Studios assembles an unconventional team of antiheroes — Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster and John Walker. After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap set by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, these disillusioned castoffs must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts. Will this dysfunctional group tear themselves apart, or find redemption and unite as something much more before it’s too late?
Returning to their Marvel Cinematic Universe roles are Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Hannah John-Kamen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The cast also includes newcomers to the MCU—Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer and Wendell Edward Pierce.
Jake Schreier directs Thunderbolts* with Kevin Feige producing. Louis D’Esposito, Brian Chapek and Jason Tamez serve as executive producers.