Box Office: ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Fending Off ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ and ‘Paws of Fury’

variety.com:

J. Kim Murphy “Thor: Love and Thunder” looks to rule the box office again in its second weekend, fending off more modest openers “Where the Crawdads Sing” and “Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank.”While Marvel’s Thor fourquel has an easy path to remaining the weekend’s top release, the superhero film is taking a sizable tumble from its opening. “Love and Thunder” added $13.8 million in its second Friday, roughly 80% down from its opening day.

That’s a hair stronger than Marvel’s most recent releases “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (an 81% drop on its second Friday) and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (an 84% fall), but it’s on the steeper side for the studio, particularly compared to the film’s predecessor “Thor: Ragnarok,” which fell 60% in its second Friday.

Some industry projections have “Love and Thunder” netting $45 million in its second weekend, falling below initial estimates for a sophomore haul north of $55 million.Directed by “Ragnarok” helmer Taika Waititi, the fourth solo installment in Thor’s Marvel journey stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Jaimie Alexander and Russell Crowe.Sony’s “Where the Crawdads Sing,” the feature adaptation of the popular murder mystery novel, is projected to pull $15 million to $16 million in its opening weekend after starting off with $2.3 million in Thursday previews.

It’s a sizable debut for a female-skewing drama with a modest $24 million production budget. What’s more, “Crawdads” is outperforming its original industry projections, which had pegged the adaptation for a $10 million opening heading into the weekend.