Box Office: Can Thunderbolts' low but encouraging business in India help Marvel regain its lost fanbase?

The beginning of May saw Marvel ending the phase five of the MCU with the release of THUNDERBOLTS*, a team of superheroes brought together as the new Avengers of the cinematic universe. The superhero movie stars Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Wendell Pierce, David Harbour, and several others in its ensemble star cast. It is directed by Jake Schreier.

As the film opened to a positive response in the global market, it did so in India too. Even though the studio lost its fanbase after Avengers: Endgame, or more appropriately after Spider Man: No Way Home, THUNDERBOLTS* has been met with an encouraging response in the territory. Can this encouraging response make the cinematic universe a big deal in India again?

The positive response for THUNDERBOLTS*

The positive reception for Marvel’s THUNDERBOLTS* does not appear too big on the collection front, but it has undoubtedly been a good one. As for the box office collections, it follows a similar trend to Captain America: Brave New World, which failed in India. However, it was a failure due to the presence of an already popular character, Captain America, in its fourth film.

The same box office trend for THUNDERBOLTS* is appreciable as none of the superheroes are popular names except Sebastian Stan as Bucky or the Winter Soldier who has been a part of the MCU in the past. Hence, the results of THUNDERBOLTS* have been low and encouraging so far, with a net collection of Rs 25 crore in 11 days.

If it continues well with the same quality of content or even better, Marvel Studios has a good chance of becoming big in India again. But, that would require a string of films receiving a good reception rather than just a couple of them, and that is where they have been popularly inconsistent over the last several years.

In the past, they had Avengers: Endgame with a net collection of Rs 373 crore in India, as well as No Way Home, which proved to be a blockbuster in the post-pandemic era. In the future, the studio will have several films that have a good chance of tapping into the potential of the Indian market, like The Fantastic Four: First Steps or Avengers: Doomsday, which will bring Robert Downey Jr. back into the MCU.

Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more updates.

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