‘Eternals’ beats ‘Clifford: The Red Dog Giant’ in North American box office race

Bur Rebecca Robin

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The Marvel graphic saga “Eternos” is once again dominating the US box office.

For its second weekend in a row, the superhero adventure grossed $27.5 million in 4,090 US theaters. As of Sunday, “Eternos” has exceeded $100 million in the United States and Canada, with a box office total of $118 million. Although Covid-19 gets in the way of this kind of comparison, quite a few films crossed $100 million in 2021.

“The Eternals” is down 61 percent from its $71 million weekend release, an average drop for Marvel’s other pandemic releases, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings” (which is down 52% compared to with its first release on the weekend) and “Black Widow” (which saw a 67% drop).

Like “Eternals,” “Shang-Chi” appears in physical theaters only, while “Black Widow” premiered on Disney Plus (costs $30 plus a monthly subscription) on the same day it opened in theaters.

Compared to recent releases in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Eternals” has not received the best reviews. He was the only one with a “Corrupt” rating on review site Rotten Tomatoes, and one of the few to have an audience rating below “A” on CinemaScore.

These factors did not affect the Sony comic book “Venom: Carnage Time”, which received similar reviews from audiences and critics. However, moviegoers have come to develop much higher expectations (and standards) for the Disney Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is critically and commercially at a higher level.