The first of two huge blockbusters this November, Thor: The Dark World opened this weekend and easily crushed the competition. The hammer of Thor outmatched all other releases, as well as the first Thor film from 2011. Despite its success, this weekend also reminded us that while Thor might be the god of thunder, even he isn’t immune to failing to meet some higher end expectations.

Thor: The Dark World

I wouldn’t call the $86.1 million debut of Thor: The Dark World disappointing, but its numbers didn’t particularly surpass expectations. Its debut represents an almost identical increase over its predecessor that Iron Man 3 had over Iron Man 2. And an $86 million debut for a hero that was long considered second or even third tier is a testament to Marvel’s great job with the property, as while as the strong performance of Chris Hemsworth, to say nothing of ensemble darkhorse Tom Hiddleston’s popularity as Loki.

Thor pretty much has next weekend to himself, but even still, a drop over 50% should be expected. And then Catching Fire will come along to bring the Mighty Thor to his knees. Nonetheless, with this strong debut, $250 million is far from unthinkable, but we’ll have to see how the film holds next weekend before any term projections are made. Dukemich and I will be sure to discuss and review the film on our next movie show on Friday.

Way back in second, Bad Grandpa dropped 44% and grossed $11.3 million. With $78.8 million in the bank, it’s proven to be a surprisingly leggy film and $100 million isn’t out of the question. After its disappointing debut, Free Birds got some good news via a strong 29% fall. $11.2 this weekend gives it a total of $30.2 million and it will probably still be around to benefit a bit from Thanksgiving in a few weeks.

Last Vegas held well, dropping just 32%. $11.1 million this weekend brought the total to $33.5 million. Gravity is finally outside the top 5, as it grossed $8.4 million this weekend for a drop of 35%. $231 million for the Alfonso Cuarón picture. Staying in seventh place, 12 Years a Slave increased 38% to $6.6 million. It added quite a lot of theatres, so although its gross increase, its per theatre average went down quite a bit. Nonetheless, $17.3 million in total so far is a strong gross for the Oscar hopeful.

Captain Phillips is almost ready to set sail for seas beyond the top ten. It grossed $5.8 million this weekend, down 31% and now has a sum of $91 million. Expanding into nationwide release, About Time grossed $5.2 million and increased 381% (it added a lot of theatres). It has a $6.7 million total so far.

September hit Cloudy 2 spends one last weekend in the top ten, grossing $2.8 million after dropping 33%. It has a total just under $110 million and who knows, we may yet get a Cloudy 3. That does it for the top ten this weekend, as Thor just dominated. The God of Thunder gets another weekend to reign next weekend, unless it crashes unfathomably hard and The Best Man Holiday opens inconceivably above expectations. Until we meet again.