This weekend marks another return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as director Chloe Zhao helps set the table for the future with her film Eternals. Already, the latest MCU offering has made quite an impressive mark, as the grosses from Thursday’s advance showings have been tallied. Though the results lag a little behind other members of this year’s Marvel pack, the results are still something to celebrate as Phase 4 marches on.
Reported by Deadline, Eternals brought in a third place finish of $9.5 million in Thursday previews alone. The top spot of such results is still in the corner of Marvel Studios’ Black Widow, which netted $13.2 million in its web of intrigue. However, second place belongs not to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ $8.8 million flowing in from its Thursday preview showings. As one would expect, Sony’s MCU adjacent entry Venom: Let There Be Carnage is the runner-up, with its $11.6 million previews helping land the film an October record.
Third place isn’t a bad place for Eternals to sit, especially since there are some who think that the all-star talents of Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Brian Tyree Henry, and Salma Hayek are going to help the film to a rather impressive weekend overall. But there’s already some factors that could point towards why Eternals did well, but not better, in its Thursday showings. And these pointers could affect even the rosiest of projections for the next couple of days.
First, and most importantly, Eternals has a not-so-brisk running time that’s within a stones throw of three hours. That leads to less showtimes available for the general public, which obviously yields a lower gross than a movie with greater turnover. Unless your movie is a cultural event like Avengers: Endgame, running time seems to be a factor that can determine your success to a certain point.
But of course, this is the Marvel Cinematic Universe we’re talking about here. Eternals has that talking point working in its favor, and quite well frankly. Even in the light of the mixed critical reactions that have seen the film rank as the worst rated MCU film on Rotten Tomatoes, crowds are still showing up to see what comes next on the road to future movies. To some movie fans, the only thing worse than missing a Marvel movie in theaters is being spoiled on the secrets that may become important clues to how other projects like Spider-Man: No Way Home will play out.
We’ll see how Eternals weekend results look in the next couple of days, as the film is currently in theaters. If you want to see what our own Eric Eisenberg thought of the film, you can read our official review to find out! And as always, if you’re eternally curious about the remaining films in the 2021 release schedule, that information’s out in the open as well.
