This weekend was a roaring one at movie theaters, where Thor easily secured the #1 position with an estimated $66 million in U.S. ticket sales (with international sales boosting it to a total of $242 million), which qualifies it as a fairly successful “summer” movie. Between this film, the Iron Man franchise, and the inexplicably successful X-Men movies, Marvel Studios really has the box-office sewn up as far as comic-book adaptations go, while any viable D.C. Comics titles loom far off in the horizon with the Superman reboot and The Dark Knight Rises still in their pre-production phases. At any rate, Thor and his abdominal muscles pretty much killed it this weekend, and while I was pretty skeptical about a newcomer (or, at least, a virtually unknown actor) carrying a major studio tentpole, I will concede that an effective marketing blitz (and inflated 3D prices) really did the trick in boosting Thor to this point:

Reviews have been good, and British Kenneth Branagh’s direction and Aussie newcomer Chris Hemsworth in the title role of The Mighty Thor earned a 92% rating currently on Rotten Tomatoes. The good-looking Hemsworth allowed for heavy PR to drum up appeal among women with his shirtless clip a popular choice for talk shows with large female audiences who also were targeted with a Royal Wedding blitz. To solidify male appeal, Paramount had spots during the Super Bowl and NCAA Basketball, the UFC Marathon and UFC Fight Night Live Premiere. And, to appeal to the feeble-brained, Thor ads aired on the finale of Jersey Shore.

Thor launched in 1962 and has endured for almost half a century across comics, toys, animated series, and now a movie. Like Iron Man, Marvel thought Thor deserved to be made in its own right and lends a long history to The Avengers. (Aka Marvel’s Avengers Assemble strategy. Expect to see agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., previously seen in the Iron Man movies, foreshadowing the coming of The Avengers). The challenge for Paramount was to market a reverse superhero story: a hero becomes a man. “Our challenge was to emphasize what was unique about his character and define him for audiences,” a studio exec told me. So the TV ads reminded: “The world has many heroes but only one is a God.” This epic adventure spans the Marvel Universe from present day Earth to the realm of Asgard with the powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans as punishment. Once here, Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.

[From Deadline]

Elsewhere, the Vin Diesel/Dwayne Johnson homoerotic picture of the decade, Fast Five, held onto #2. Even though it’s springtime, the weekend’s two wedding-themed movies didn’t fare so well, with Jumping the Broom and Something Borrowed (starring Kate Hudson and her nympho ways), scoring #3 with $13.7 million and #4 with $13.2 million, respectively speaking. Meanwhile, The Beaver opened in 22 theaters with only $104,000 total under its already dubious belt. In other words, it probably won’t be opening next weekend in your nearest multiplex, and now Jodie Foster has only herself to blame (and not race psychology) for wasting a $20 million budget on a movie about a guy who’s so depressed that he can only speak though a puppet. Hopefully, this also means she’ll stop praising Mel Gibson for awhile too.

Photos courtesty of AllMoviePhoto and Square Hippies