Justice League unites for $13M opening Thursday night

The movies in the DC universe have so far had no trouble making money, but out of all the movies so far, JUSTICE LEAGUE is the one that needs to be successful. There’s too much riding on it for it to not be one of the biggest movies of the year, and the Thursday night gross for the film points to a hefty start to box office glory.

According to Deadline, JUSTICE LEAGUE has managed to assemble a heroic $13 million Thursday night, coming in ahead of WONDER WOMAN’s $11 million cume, which went on to make $38 million on opening Friday (leading to a $103 million weekend). Using WOMAN as a reference, we could see LEAGUE nabbing around $40 million for its opening Friday before heading on to around $110-115 million opening weekend. Though this no chump change, it will put it below the openings of other DCEU movies like BATMAN V. SUPERMAN and SUICIDE SQUAD, which made around $160 million and $130 million respectively.

Also as a comparison, LEAGUE’s opening Thursday comes in slightly below THOR’s $14.5 million (going on to a $122 million opening) and is even closer to IT’s $13.5 million Thursday (going on to a $123 million weekend). Though the movie may not open as large as the other comparable blockbusters, LEAGUE is set to take advantage of the remainder of November, with the only other big movie on the way being next week’s COCO, which should only affect the family audience. Otherwise, it has virtually a solid month of minimal competition before STAR WARS steals everyone away.

One could say JL is critic-proof, with comic book fans far and wide anxious to see the movie, but the irony is the reviews are the only thing standing in the way of the movie making as much as studio execs are hoping. Currently standing at a 38% Rotten Tomatoes score, those who left BVS and SS (27% and 26%) feeling jaded may find no comfort in JL, and may not be willing to spend money to see the movie in theaters. As a result, some may even go in for another round of THOR, which was met with some of Marvel’s best reviews and is still gaining a large audience despite LEAGUE’s release.

I saw the movie last night, like many of you, and for the most part, the audience seemed to embrace it and have a fun time. Though there was only one moment in the whole film that elicited cheers and laughs, the audience, on the whole, laughed at the funny bits (mostly from FLASH), with a few attendees clapping at the end. In the end, I think more people will enjoy this movie than last year's DCEU releases and it will hold better than those movies at the box office. Although, the people who were clapping at the end of my showing soon stopped when they realized they were the only ones, so maybe I'm wrong.

JUSTICE LEAGUE is in theaters now.