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‘Captain America’ didn’t beat ‘Thor’ after all

Los Angeles Times reporter Amy Kaufman
By Amy Kaufman
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It turns out that ‘Captain America’ wasn’t the fastest superhero out of the gate at the box office this summer after all.

On Sunday, Paramount Pictures estimated that ‘Captain America: The First Avenger,’ the 3-D film starring Chris Evans as the Marvel comic book character, would gross $65.8 million over the weekend. With that figure, it would have had the biggest first weekend of any superhero film released this summer -- just barely topping the $65.7 million debut of the 3-D ‘Thor’ back in May.

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But when the ticket sales were accounted for on Monday, Paramount said ‘Captain America’ had actually collected $65.1 million over the weekend. Of course, that’s still a solid opening -- one that’s more than $10 million higher than the debuts of both ‘Green Lantern’ and ‘X-Men: First Class’ in June.

And even though ‘Thor’ was able to throw down the hammer in the initial box office battle, ‘Captain America’ may ultimately have more power than the Norse god in the long run. Audiences who saw ‘Captain America’ this weekend loved the film, giving it an average grade of A-minus, according to market research firm CinemaScore; ‘Thor,’ comparatively, scored a B-plus.

-- Amy Kaufman
twitter.com/AmyKinLA
Company Town Blog
Amy Kaufman

Amy Kaufman is a columnist at the Los Angeles Times, where she writes a monthly A-1 column, “For Real With Amy Kaufman.” The series examines the lives of icons, underdogs and rising stars to find out who the people are shaping our culture — for real. Since joining The Times in 2009, she has profiled hundreds of influential figures, including Stevie Nicks, Kevin Hart, Joan Rivers, Michael B. Jordan and Lady Gaga. She also works on investigations and was part of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist team that covered the tragic shooting on the “Rust” film set. Her work often shines a light on the darker side of the entertainment business, and she has uncovered misconduct allegations against Randall Emmett, Russell Simmons and Chris D’Elia. In 2018, her book “Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America’s Favorite Guilty Pleasure” became a New York Times bestseller.

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