'Thunderbolts' strikes big, topping N.America box office

New Marvel superhero film "Thunderbolts" triumphed over the North American box office this weekend, raking in an estimated $76 million in a promising start to the summer movie season, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday.

"Thunderbolts" features Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell and David Harbour as a motley bunch of antiheroes. Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays a malevolent CIA chief.

"This is a very good opening for a new superhero story," said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. With "excellent" reviews and audience scores, the film should "play extremely well around the world," he said.

Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian said on X that "this kickoff film of the summer movie season will ignite an epic month of May for movie theaters!"

Ryan Coogler's period vampire thriller "Sinners" starring Michael B. Jordan slipped to second place but still took in $33 million in its third weekend out, a showing The Hollywood Reporter called "phenomenal."

Warner Bros.' video game adaptation "A Minecraft Movie," starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, rose one spot from last weekend to third, earning $13.7 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period.

It remains the top release of the year, with total US ticket sales of $398.2 million and international sales of $475 million for a total of $873.2 million.

Fourth place went to Amazon MGM Studios' "The Accountant 2," at $9.5 million. Ben Affleck plays a neurodivergent math genius with criminal ties, and Jon Bernthal is his hit-man brother.

And in fifth was another video game adaptation, Sony's gory horror film "Until Dawn," at $3.8 million.

Meantime, Alec Baldwin's ill-fated Western "Rust" -- made infamous when a weapon held by Baldwin discharged a bullet, fatally wounding the film's cinematographer -- finally opened in a limited release of 115 theaters.

It took in just $25,000, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

"The Amateur" ($1.8 million)

"The King of Kings" ($1.7 million)

"Warfare" ($1.3 million)

"Hit: The Third Case" ($925,000)

"The Surfer" ($675,000)