CHATTER AWAY: Overnight Open Thread

Variety reports:

Marvel’s “Thunderbolts*” will easily top the weekend box office after cracking a $31.5 million gross across Friday and preview screenings from 4,330 theaters.

That puts the ensemble action piece, which follows a ragtag team-up of Marvel’s least superpowered personalities, on pace to land within projections for a domestic opening between $70 million and $75 million. The movie also gets a boost in grosses from Imax and other premium-large format auditoriums.

It’d be a sizable start for what could be described as a new franchise (though most of the “Thunderbolts*” heroes have already debuted in other Marvel Cinematic Universe entries). But it does demonstrate Marvel Studios‘ diminished event status at the box office.

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