Thor: Ragnarok easily retained the North American crown but the decline was as high as 68%

Last week, there were no big-budget new films released in the North American market. Thor: Love and Thunder retained the top spot with $46 million (rough estimate), but it dropped 68.1% from the previous week, the second-highest drop in the MCU (Thor 3 dropped 53.5% in the second week). The new film The Girl in the Deep ranked only third with $17 million.

Thor: Ragnarok's 68% second-week drop is only lower than The Incredible Hulk's 70% in the MCU, and higher than Doctor Strange 2's 67%. Although North American audiences are still enthusiastic about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), they are somewhat aesthetically fatigued. In the fourth phase of the MCU, four films, including Black Widow, Eternals, Spider-Man: No Homecoming, and Doctor Strange 2, have seen second-week drops of more than 65%.

As for the big declines, "Black Widow" was due to simultaneous releases on streaming media, and "Spider-Man: No Homecoming" was due to the second weekend falling on Christmas Eve, but "Doctor Strange 2" and "Thor 4" had poor reputations.

There are only 4 movies in the MCU with a CinemaScore below A, and 3 of them, "Thor 4", "Eternals" and "Doctor Strange 2", are from the fourth phase of the MCU; there are only 6 movies in the MCU with a Rotten Tomatoes freshness below 75%, and 3 of them, "Doctor Strange 2", "Thor 4" and "Eternals" are from the fourth phase.

Although the audience reputation of the fourth phase of MCU has declined, the box office is still strong. "Thor 4" has currently accumulated 233 million US dollars in North America and 497 million US dollars worldwide. The box office in the first 10 days is still the best in the "Thor" series.

Last week's runner-up was Minions 2, which earned $26 million in its third weekend, a 44% drop from the previous month, which was better than the 53.5% of Minions 1 in the same period. Currently, Minions has accumulated $262 million in North America and $532 million worldwide.

The new film "Girl in the Deep" ranked third at the box office with 17 million US dollars. Considering that the film was only invested with 24 million US dollars, this performance has exceeded the expectations of the distributor Sony.

"Top Gun 2", which has been released for two months, still ranks fourth with 12 million US dollars, with a total of 617 million US dollars in North America and 1.237 billion US dollars worldwide, both of which set the best records in Paramount's film history.

The new film "Blade" ranked sixth with $6.25 million on its opening day.