Taika Waititi's Thor: Love and Thunder is all but guaranteed to be one of the most financially successful movies of 2022, continuing the winning formula the director established with the franchise's previous installment, Thor: Ragnarok.
Ragnarok not only brought Waititi to the MCU but also introduced Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie to the franchise's stable of heroes. The character did make the most of limited screen time in Avengers: Endgame, but it's Love and Thunder that serves as Thompson's true sophomore MCU adventure. Her films outside the globe's most lucrative franchise have proven to be profitable in their own right, even if to a lesser extent.
10 Sorry To Bother You (2018) — $17.5 Million
A perfect addition to any Tessa Thompon binge, Sorry to Bother You is a wildly inventive film and a jaw-droppingly masterful debut film for Boots Riley. But Riley isn't the only one to impress, as lead stars Thompson and Lakeith Stanfield give note-perfect performances to accommodate the film's offbeat tone.
Working with a budget of just $3.2 million (minuscule by 2018 standards), Riley's film managed to amass an impressive $17.5 million from domestic theaters alone, according to Box Office Mojo. This makes the $677,611 from international territories all gravy. It's an example of a solid, inventive film profiting the way it should.
9 Annihilation (2018) — $32.7 Million
Annihilation, from Ex Machina director Alex Garland, tells the story of a mysterious, shining dome that suddenly covers miles of earth, and the scientists (including Thompson's physicist Josie Radek) who investigate its deadly interior.
Annihilation may be one of Thompson's top-grossing movies, but it's not the biggest success. Box Office Mojo puts the film's budget at $40 million, meaning Garland's film needed to earn far more than its $32.7 million domestic haul to break even much less make any profit. And with an international tally of only $10.3 million, the film mostly had to rely on its domestic gross.
8 For Colored Girls (2010) — $37.7 Million
Not only is For Colored Girls one of the best Tyler Perry movies, but it gave Thompson some early spotlight, as well. She plays Nyla, the daughter of Whoopi Goldberg's Alice Adrose. The two have a strained relationship, which only gets tenser (and allows Thompson more opportunities to show off her range) once an unplanned pregnancy is brought into the mix.
A rare entirely serious film from Perry, For Colored Girls performed like most of his films: it opened high and swiftly dropped off. But the film also carried a relatively high price tag of $21 million, making its $19.5 million opening weekend (per Box Office Mojo) seem less impressive when considering the proven name brand.
7 When A Stranger Calls (2006) — $47.8 Million
1979's When a Stranger Calls gets a lot of credit for its (admittedly effective) "the killer is inside the house" scene, but Bob Clark's Black Christmas had already done the same thing five years prior. But it has its moments, even if it's not towards the top of horror aficionados' list of favorites. The hollow 2006 remake isn't on the list at all and doesn't even give Thompson a single interesting thing to do outside of supporting Camilla Belle's lead character.
The original When a Stranger Calls was a fairly substantial hit in 1979 and, while the remake certainly didn't sell as many tickets, its gross of $47.8 million in 2006 from domestic markets alone is fairly impressive. Toss in the international tally of $19.2 million and a slim budget of only $15 million (according to Box Office Mojo), and When a Stranger Calls was a successful horror film, remake or otherwise.
6 Selma (2014) — $52 Million
It may not have gotten the Oscar attention it deserved, but Selma did fairly well for itself at the box office and stands as one of Thompson's best movies. In it, she portrays true-life civil rights activist Diane Nash, one of the chief Freedom Riders and an integral figure in the creation and implementation of the Selma to Montgomery marches.
Box Office Mojo puts Selma's budget at $20 million, a fairly standard number for a studio drama. The investment was worth it, considering the film raked in $52 million from U.S. and Canadian theaters and $14.7 million from international territories.
5 Men In Black: International (2019) — $80 Million
There was just no audience interest in Men in Black without Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones holding the oversized laser guns. Men in Black: International tried to combine Thompson and Chris Hemsworth's Thor: Ragnarok chemistry with the alien-hunting series' established formula.
But the film was obviously tired from the first trailer, including a villain that could be seen from a mile away, and it only managed to pull in $80 mil domestic on a $110 budget. Box Office Mojo puts the international tally at almost $174 million, but even that wasn't enough to save the film from holding the title of "flop."
4 Creed (2015) — $109.7 Million
The first trailer for Creed announced it as an unexpected sequel to Rocky worth paying attention to. Upon hitting theaters, the Michael B. Jordan and Thompson-led film was swiftly regarded as one of the best legacy sequels, a title it still holds today. While the visceral boxing scenes go a long way towards securing Creed's title as one of the franchise's best, the endearing dynamic and palpable chemistry between Jordan's Adonis and Thompson's Bianca pull even more weight. Furthermore, Bianca is fleshed out to the point of being one of Thompson's best characters, as her super-indie music career and progressive hearing loss make for a compelling dichotomy.
To fully appreciate Creed's success, it's best to look back at the Rocky franchise as a whole. The first movie was a phenomenal financial success, as was the second, but to a lesser extent. Then Rocky III outgrossed them both, a pattern continued by Rocky IV. However, the notoriously putrid Rocky V tanked, and the franchise lay dormant for 16 years before the release of Rocky Balboa, which scored a very respectable $156 million worldwide on a budget of just $24 mil (per Box Office Mojo). Creed, however, outgrossed that legacy sequel even without Rocky's name in the title, earning a worldwide gross of $173.5 million on a still-slight budget of $35 million (again as reported by Box Office Mojo).
3 Creed II (2018) — $115.7 Million
Creed II again upped the ante for the Rocky/Creed franchise, both in terms of financial reception and narrative stakes. The plot puts Michael B. Jordan's Creed against the son of Rocky IV's iconic Ivan "I must break you" Drago. Thompson's Bianca is back as well and still struggling with getting her music career off the ground, but now she also carries the child of a prizefighter.
2 Thor: Ragnarok (2017) — $315 Million
Thompson's MCU debut just so happened to be one of the best superhero movies of all time, and Valkyrie is a big reason for it. Thompson's character receives one of the best introductions in the entire MCU, and every subsequent scene she's in glows just as bright as her first. The character also has an interesting arc: a disgraced, fallen warrior who just needs to find the inspiration lying dormant within herself.
As only the fourth installment of the MCU, Kenneth Branagh's Thor had to both keep a consistent tone with Iron Man and introduce the cosmic and mythological corners of the Marvel world. Per Box Office Mojo, the first film scored a respectable $450 million on a budget of $150 mil. According to Box Office Mojo, the second film upped the budget by $20 million but gained nearly $200 million more than the original for a total of $645 million in worldwide revenue. However, Ragnarok's BOM page shows a total far more impressive. The film scored a massive $850 million worldwide on an again slightly increased budget of $180 million.
1 Avengers: Endgame (2019) — $858 Million
Valkyrie gets a few showstopping moments in the closing chapter of the Infinity Saga, but her role is ultimately limited to the battle against Thanos and Tony Stark's funeral.
Innumerable stories have been written on Avengers: Endgame's financial success and its staggering domestic opening of $357 million earned every last one. Oddly enough, that opening three-day total is about one million higher than its gargantuan budget (per Box Office Mojo). But Endgame didn't just open high, it went on to earn over $850 million from the U.S. and Canada alone. Factor in an international tally of nearly $2 billion and the MCU culmination will probably be the non-Avatar financial highpoint of cinema for quite some time.
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