Road to Infinity War - THOR Retrospective


Welcome to the Road to AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. This is my own little retrospective of each of Marvel Studios' films every week of 2018 and by the time I am done looking back at all of the MCU movies, Infinity War will be releasing in theaters in the U.S. on May 4. I've already talked about IRON MANTHE INCREDIBLE HULK, and IRON MAN 2, so let's continue to THOR...

If IRON MAN 2 was meant to be the beginning of Marvel Studios opening up its cinematic universe by introducing new characters like Black Widow, the War Machine armor, and a larger role for Nick Fury, then THOR was meant to drastically expand the cinematic universe into the cosmos. By introducing cosmic realms like Asgard and the Nine Realms, THOR was a huge leap for the studio and its planned interconnected multi-franchise storytelling.

But THOR did not come without some development drama as it went through several directors — including Matthew Vaughn and Guillermo del Toro — before hiring Kenneth Branagh to helm the origin film. Once Branagh was onboard the task of finding the perfect actor to portray the God of Thunder began. Marvel Studios and Branagh reportedly first approached actor Daniel Craig for the lead role, but he turned it down due to his multi-film commitment to the James Bond franchise. So an unknown actor, who at the time recently had a very small role in J.J. Abrams' STAR TREK reboot at the start of the film as the father of James T. Kirk, was chosen.

The interesting part about Chris Hemsworth landing the role is that his younger brother Liam Hemsworth also auditioned for the role of Thor. And auditioning for the lead role was actor Tom Hiddleston, who Marvel and Branagh loved so much they couldn't pass up the opportunity of finding a role for the very talented actor and instead chose him to be Thor's half-brother villain Loki. Choosing both Chris and Tom would turn out to be a rare example of catching lightning in the bottle during the casting process, twice.

Of course Marvel fans were not so sure about casting these two no-name actors (at the time) into these iconic comic book roles. But yet again those who doubted it were proved wrong after the first trailer was released, and, as tended to happen in the early going of the MCU, fans changed their mind when they finally saw a first glimpse at what was soon to hit theaters.


THOR released in the U.S. on May 6, 2011 and it was made on a reported production budget of $150 million. However, moviegoers were not as eager to get to the theater to see THOR has they were for both IRON MAN and IRON MAN 2 because THOR opened with $65 million in its domestic box office. Not a terrible opening, but still to this day it is the fourth lowest domestic opening weekend for any Marvel Studios movie.

Overseas, THOR fared a little bit better as it brought in $268 million compared to its $181 million domestically. Worldwide its total was $449 million, which is the studios' third lowest worldwide total for any of its MCU films.

Many complaints about THOR revolved around moments that took place on Earth, however, without this there would have been no brief cameo by Hawkeye to continue the path toward THE AVENGERS the following year. Plus, Thor's time on Earth furthered his character development by helping him realize his true potential as the God of Thunder and to learn to be more compassionate, thus leading him to become worthy of wielding Mjolnir once again. THOR may have only received an average critic score of 6.7 out of 10 on RottenTomatoes, but that didn't stop Marvel Studios from moving forward with it's continued plans of expanding the MCU by giving a sequel the green light.

Written by Daniel Wolf, Founder & Publisher


Previous Road to Infinity War Posts:
Road to Infinity War - THE INCREDIBLE HULK Retrospective

Road to Infinity War - IRON MAN Retrospective



Comments