This weekend was expected be an easy second weekend victory for the God of Thunder, as only one new wide release debuted. Said new film is a sequel to a moderately successful film from a full fourteen years ago. However, the competition for the number one spot ended up being much closer than anticipated. Even still, The Mighty Thor prevailed, though not with an unexpectedly close call.

Thor: The Dark World

Thor, Loki and company topped the box office charts with $38.4 million, falling 55% in the process. That’s a steeper drop than that of the first Thor, which fell 47%. Nonetheless, The Dark World has amassed $147 million through two weekends whereas the original had $120 million. Catching Fire will surely steal a way a ton of business next weekend, but I still like Thor’s chances to finish around $210 million in total.

I remember reading predictions and tracking estimates that had The Best Man Holiday opening over $20 million and I was stunned. I thought $20 million was extremely ambitious, but then it went ahead and opened to $30.6 million, which is stunning. That’s only a few million off the entire lifetime gross of its predecessor. This is just another example in a long list of films that appealed to niche markets starved for something that appeals to them. And maybe the original has been able to garner a bit of a fanbase over the past 14 years. At any rate, this will end up as one of the biggest surprise successes of the year.

Last Vegas continued its good legs, this time slipping just 20% and grossing $8.9 million. With $47 million in the bank, this one is also a surprise success and could find its way to about $65-70 million. Free Birds also continued to demonstrate good legs, falling 25% to $8.3 million. $42.2 million in the bank for the animated flick. And for the third time in a row, we have a picture that’s demonstrated good legs: Bad Grandpa dropped 32% to $7.7 million. That puts its sum at $90.2 million with $100 million in its sights.

Unfortunately, Gravity is still hanging around. This overrated, pretentious snoozefest fell 26% and grossed $6.3 million. $240.6 million in the bank for this one. Ender’s Game fell 40% to $6.2 million, lifting its total to $53.8 million. Adding 267 theatres helped 12 Years A Slave hold well. The Oscar hopeful slipped 30% to $4.7 million and has amassed $25 million to date.

Captain Phillips was down 21%, grossed $4.5 million this weekend and lifted its total to $97.6 million. About Time wraps up the top ten with a gross of $3.5 million, down 27%, for a total of $11.6 million. Next weekend, we see the highly anticipated comedy starring Vince Vaugh, Delivery Man! Wait, no, that’s not right. Wasn’t there another movie coming out next weekend? One that people might actually see? Right! The Hunger Games: Catching Fire arrives next weekend to set the box office ablaze. I can’t wait. See ya next weekend, everybody. Until we meet again.