Box office*

[psylockolussus]

Expected.

 

[mace1]

Thunderbolts
Box office

As of June 11, 2025, Thunderbolts* has grossed $187.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $190.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $378 million. It is one of the lowest grossing MCU films, with Variety reporting it needed to earn $425 million worldwide to break even which seemed "unachievable".
wikipedia

 

[Mysteryman]

Thunderbolts
Box office.

Pity.
Excellent Film.

 

[psylockolussus]

Grosses*
Domestic (49.7%)
$188,576,849

International (50.3%)
$190,592,379

Worldwide
$379,169,228

 

[psylockolussus]

380,368,739, finally outgrossed Black Widow worldwide.

It needs about 1.5 million to outgross Into the Spider-Verse domestically.

 

[psylockolussus]

Domestic (49.7%)
$189,777,989
International (50.3%)
$191,874,174
Worldwide
$381,652,163

 

[lenz]

I just watched an excellent essay on Youtube by Filmento regarding the Thunderbolts failure at the box office. Very interesting POV.

 

[psylockolussus]

The movie just didn't look appealing. If they picked a better set of characters, with the same story beats, there would have been a difference at the bix office. The general audience just weren't invested enough with Yelena, Ghost, John Walker, Taskmaster and Red Guardian. While Bucky who was the most popular, played second fiddle. This movie needed an bonafide Avenger, marketing wise.

 

[lenz]

The movie just didn't look appealing. If they picked a better set of characters, with the same story beats, there would have been a difference at the bix office. The general audience just weren't invested enough with Yelena, Ghost, John Walker, Taskmaster and Red Guardian. While Bucky who was the most popular, played second fiddle. This movie needed an bonafide Avenger, marketing wise.

I think more people would have given it a shot a few years ago. What I appreciate is they tried to create a character piece with lesser-knowns and get away from a bloated CGI spectacle. The video makes a lot of great points and while I disagree in some areas, I still think it's a net positive for the MCU. I'll take attempts at filmmaking like this over crap like Quantumania and the Marvels anytime. Hopefully it doesn't scare them away from trying more films like this in the future.

 

[psylockolussus]

Ant-Man and the Wasp earned $214 million domestically and $622 million worldwide. It was a sequel, released after Infinity War and box office numbers were peaking at that time. Yet it didn't perform that big compare to mcu movies that came out from 2015 to 2018. So I don't think Thunderbolts would have earned so much, if it was released around those years. Maybe close to what Ant-Man and the Wasp got.

The lesson that Disney/Marvel Studios should take note here, just because something is good, it doesn't automatically mean it would sell well enough to make a profit. They clearly have other ips that would automatically sell better and they settled with this thing and it was not a good idea for them financially. A loss is a loss.

 

[psylockolussus]

Kevin Feige on Why Thunderbolts* & More MCU Movies Bombed at the Box Office - Comic Book Movies and Superhero Movie News - SuperHeroHype

Kevin Feige comments on why The Marvels, Captain America: Brave New World, and Thunderbolts* weren't big box office hits.

www.superherohype.com

“Thunderbolts* was a very good movie, but nobody knew that title, and many of those characters were from shows. There was that residual effect of [audiences going], ‘I guess I had to have seen these other shows to understand who this is?’”

“It’s that expansion that I think led people to say, ‘Do I have to see all of these? It used to be fun, but now do I have to know everything about all of these?’ And I think The Marvels hit it hardest where people are like, ‘OK, I recognize her from a billion-dollar movie. But who are those other two? I guess they were in some TV show. I’ll skip it.’”

 

[lenz]

It's like he's having a conversation with himself.

 

[psylockolussus]

Domestic (49.7%)
$189,966,987

International (50.3%)
$192,162,589

Worldwide
$382,129,576

 

[AndrewGilkison]

Kevin Feige on Why Thunderbolts* & More MCU Movies Bombed at the Box Office - Comic Book Movies and Superhero Movie News - SuperHeroHype

Kevin Feige comments on why The Marvels, Captain America: Brave New World, and Thunderbolts* weren't big box office hits.

www.superherohype.com

“Thunderbolts* was a very good movie, but nobody knew that title, and many of those characters were from shows. There was that residual effect of [audiences going], ‘I guess I had to have seen these other shows to understand who this is?’”

“It’s that expansion that I think led people to say, ‘Do I have to see all of these? It used to be fun, but now do I have to know everything about all of these?’ And I think The Marvels hit it hardest where people are like, ‘OK, I recognize her from a billion-dollar movie. But who are those other two? I guess they were in some TV show. I’ll skip it.’”

Marvel clearly overestimated how popular the Ms. Marvel Disney Plus show was going to be, or how much the general public cared about Monica Rambeau after her appearance in WandaVision.

 

[psylockolussus]

There was no crossover appeal from tv to movies, when it came to the Marvels. It was too bad, Captain Marvel did so well in the first place.

 

[psylockolussus]

Domestic (49.7%)
$189,966,987

International (50.3%)
$192,162,589

Worldwide
$382,129,576

Domestic (49.8%)
$190,261,299

International (50.2%)
$192,162,589

Worldwide
$382,423,888

Finally outgrossed Spider-Man: Into the Verse domestically.

 

[blueharvest]

 

[psylockolussus]

It did better than what I was expecting initially in North America. It earned about 50 million more. If only they had a budget close to SSU films and also removed Taskmaster. The movie imo, didn't look it had a budget of over $150 million.