Continuing its relentless box-office run, Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok has accomplished another milestone. The latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has now surpassed the lifetime gross of Wonder Woman to become the third highest grossing comic-book movie of 2017 worldwide.
Thor: Ragnarok has now made $833.7 million against the $821.7 million made by DC’s Wonder Woman. This gives Disney owned Marvel some pretty interesting statistics to boast of as the top three grossing comic-book movies of the year are all a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- At the top spot is Spider-Man: Homecoming. The third reboot of Spider-Man struck gold at the box-office with a worldwide gross of $880.1 million.
- At a close second is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. directed by James Gunn. The sequel to the unexpected hit Guardians of the Galaxy made $863.5 million, about a $100 million more than its predecessor.
- Finally, at third place we have the aforementioned Thor: Ragnarok. Generally considered to be among the MCU’s weaker franchises, it underwent a fresh revamp overseen by acclaimed director Taika Waititi. The re-imagining of Thor by Taika seems to have worked as the movie is now at $833.7 million making it the highest grossing movie in the Thor franchise at a time when sequels and threequels increasingly lose money.
Some of the other comic-book movies of the year include:
- Wonder Woman, which is a part of DC’s Cinematic Universe, follows close at fourth with an $821.7 million global haul.
- Logan at $616.7 million is a somewhat distant fifth despite being the best received of all movies. It was also Hugh Jackson’s swan-song as the character of Wolverine (which he adorned for the better part of two decades) although with talks of a Disney-Fox merger on the horizon, the future of his character is hazy at best.
- Justice League trails Logan only slightly with $614.7 million although chances are it will overtake the latter in about a week’s time. Despite being better received by DC’s previous outings Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, the movie has failed to strike a chord with audiences thanks to less than stellar critic scores and plenty of behind the scenes drama that have painted the movie in a negative light.
- At seventh and last place is Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Lacking the franchise star power of the previous movies, this one ended its box office run with a $395.3 million gross which is still a decent sum given its relatively lesser $100 million budget.
Some franchises such as X-Men and Deadpool sat out this year although they do have movies slated for release next year. This should make 2018 a particularly interesting one for comic-book movies.
What are your thoughts on these figures? Did we miss any comic-book movie? Do you think the MCU deserves to be in the top-three of the list? Sound off with your thoughts in the comments below: