Although some naysayers said Thor could never work on the silver screen as audiences wouldn’t be interested in the magical side of the superhero universe, they’ve been proved wrong with the movie getting off to a pretty decent $66 million start in the US. Although not a truly gargantuan opening, it’s a solid start for a not particularly well known hero, and one who has no pedigree on the big screen. With international grosses already suggesting Thor will do even better outside the States, Marvel will be thinking their $150 million investment in the movie is safe, as are their plans for The Avengers.
There were two other new entries in the top 10, both wedding-tinged counter-programming to Thor – Jumping The Broom and Something Borrowed. The former just edged out the latter to secure the third spot, which is particularly impressive as Jumping The Broom had a far smaller marketing campaign than Something Borrowed, but appears to have appealed to its target African-American female audience, while Something Borrowed failed to make much of an impression with the rest of the female population.
Way down the list (although it was only showing at 22 locations), was the Jodie Foster starring, Mel Gibson movie, The Beaver, which took a not very impressive $104,000. Indeed it was the weekend for stars to have indie pic low openers, with Sam Worthington and Keira Knightley’s Last Night only making $32,000 at 10 locations, while Passion Play, starring Mickey Rourke and Megan Fox (and which Rourke has already come out and said is terrible), made just $2,000 at two locations.
Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend of May 6th-8th.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | Thor | $66 | $66 |
| 2 | Fast Five | $32.5 | $139.8 |
| 3 | Jumping The Broom | $13.7 | $13.7 |
| 4 | Something Borrowed | $13.1 | $13.1 |
| 5 | Rio | $8.2 | $114.9 |
| 6 | Water For Elephants | $5.6 | $41.6 |
| 7 | Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family | $3.9 | $46.8 |
| 8 | Prom | $2.4 | $7.8 |
| 9 | Soul Surfer | $2.1 | $36.6 |
| 10 | Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil | $1.8 | $6.7 |