Starting with Eternals (2021), the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Multiverse Saga (comprising Phases Four, Five, and Six) has experienced a steady stream of movies that have garnered B-range CinemaScore grades. Titles like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder garnered B+ grades, while a trio of MCU features (Eternals, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and The Marvels) each received B grades. This year, Captain America: Brave New World became the first MCU feature to score a B- grade.
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It’s crazy to remember that the first 25 MCU films, 23 of which belonged to The Infinity Saga (comprised of the franchise’s first three Phases), all received either A-, A, or A+ grades… well, all except for one. There is a single exception within The Infinity Saga that represents the initial nadir of MCU audience reception.
Why Did Thor Get Such A Low CinemaScore?
On May 6, 2011, Thor hit movie theaters as just the fourth Marvel Cinematic Universe production. While the first two Iron Man installments each got A CinemaScore grades from moviegoers, Thor was graced with a B+ moniker. That made it the only pre-Eternals MCU feature to get a CinemaScore grade beneath an A-. Among summer 2011 superhero films, Thor got a lower grade than Captain America: The First Avenger (A-), but the exact same grade as June’s X-Men: First Class. It was noticeably ahead of Green Lantern’s B.
It’s often perilous and even superfluous to speculate on what inspired CinemaScore grades. These things are so precarious and often not quite indicative of how a film’s long-term word-of-mouth will play out. In the case of Thor, the film’s smaller-scale ending and quasi-cliffhanger may have just left a sour taste in people’s mouths. Summer blockbusters, or at least the most acclaimed ones, tend to conclude with extensive spectacle and with no loose ends. In this case, the uncertainty over Jane Foster and Thor reuniting may have rubbed people the wrong way.
Thor’s initially (comparatively) chilly CinemaScore grade could also be seen as a result of people getting used to seeing big fantasy movie iconography in superhero movies. After the first two Iron Man features kept things limited to the visual language of espionage and war movies, Thor featured multi-legged horses, swords, and rainbow bridges. That could’ve turned some people more accustomed to grounded fare off, while, paradoxically, the heavy emphasis on an Arizona backdrop could’ve alienated long-time Thor fans who wanted more cosmic tomfoolery. There are lots of reasons why Thor ended up being the lone Infinity Saga movie with a CinemaScore grade below A-.
A Lower CinemaScore Grade Didn’t Stop Thor
The strangest part about Thor’s theatrical journey is how a B+ CinemaScore didn’t stop it from becoming either a hit or a leggy box office performer. On the contrary, the feature’s second weekend drop was just 47% domestically, one of the smallest second-frame dips ever for an MCU motion picture. Normally, a B-range CinemaScore grade for an MCU feature indicates mixed word-of-mouth that will sink it in its second weekend. Instead, Thor kept chugging along and did roughly 2.8 times its $65 million domestic opening weekend.
That could partially be attributed to where internet culture was in 2011. Today, there’s a whole ecosystem of social media/YouTube posts dedicated to spreading the word on audience word-of-mouth for every new comic book movie. When Thor came out, though, its CinemaScore grade was largely only known by online box office geeks. It was a curiosity, a minor detail for folks writing up larger box office reports. Today, it’d be spread around major TikTok accounts lightning-fast, which could have a greater impact on a box office run.
It also could be that none of the qualms people had with Thor over opening weekend were enough to deter folks still curious about checking out the film. Plus, more features tended to hold better in 2011 than they do in the 2020s, when titles arrive on premium-video-on-demand in just a matter of weeks. Whatever the reasons behind Thor’s lower CinemaScore and steady box office legs, its initial audience reception was an anomaly amongst Infinity Saga titles. Once Phase Five rolled around, those kinds of CinemaScore grades would become the norm.
Thor is now streaming on Disney+.
