Thor: Love and Thunder crosses ₹70 crore at Indian box office

NEW DELHI: Marvel’s latest superhero flick Thor: Love and Thunder had made around ₹70 crore in India at the last count, with small towns and mass-market areas driving business for the dubbed Hindi version. Trade website Box Office India said the film should be able to cross the ₹100 crore mark and might even touch ₹110 crore in box office collections.

Trade experts said not only is the Thor character one of the oldest and most popular from the Avengers universe, unlike the last Marvel offering Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, this film has wider appeal for families and children.

The Marvel brand has become bigger in India post covid as seen in the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home a few months ago, which Thor is expected to build on as it has released in nearly 2,800 screens.

The fact that these films are increasingly finding patronage among wider audiences can be seen in their improving box office collections, for instance, Spider-Man: No Way Home that made over ₹218 crore in India this December was the first Spider-Man film to cross the ₹100 crore mark though the character and franchise have been loved for years through movies like Spider-Man: Far From Home ( ₹86.11 crore) and Spider-Man: Homecoming ( ₹59.96 crore). Love and Thunder, too, is expected to help build the Thor franchise within the Marvel universe, even though it has already seen box office success with previous instalment Thor: Ragnarok ( ₹58.73 crore) in 2017.

The Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale and Taika Waititi-starrer has released in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada besides English and in 2D, 3D, IMAX and 4DX formats. Marvel is the most money-making genre in the world as of now, and the fan base cuts across states and demographics, unlike a Rajinikanth, Vijay or Salman Khan film, it doesn’t just work in one particular state or market, be it north or south, according to trade experts. Having caught children young through television programming over the past 10-15 years, Marvel has nurtured a generation of movie-going audiences that will turn up for every offering, no matter what.