Justice League’s Rs 8 crore India debut trails Thor, film’s a ‘major disappointment’ at box office

In addition to its disappointing international debut, DC’s Justice League trailed far behind the opening weekend tally of Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok.

It might have scored top of the North American box office, but Justice League didn’t have the super opening weekend predicted, falling short of expectations with takings of $96 million, according to industry estimates released Sunday. In addition, the film opened to Rs 8 crore in India on Friday, reports Forbes.

“Justice League won’t match Thor: Ragnarok’s ₹34 crore/$5.2 million opening weekend tally in India, the 2nd best for a Hollywood import this year behind the 41.7 crore debut of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming,” reported Forbes.

With an all-star cast including Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Ben Affleck as Batman and Henry Cavill as Superman, Justice League -- based on the DC Comics superheroes team -- sees a mash-up of classic characters fend off the threat of supervillain Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds).

The big-budget Warner Bros. production -- which fared better internationally, taking $185 million -- was forecast to earn $110 million in North American cinemas, according to Variety.

Writing on Twitter, industry analyst Exhibitor Relations -- which released the estimates -- said Justice League “may be the first film to debut w/ $96M that feels like a major disappointment.”

The film’s largest international opening came from China, where the film made over $50 million. It’s also trailing behind 2016’s Batman v Superman and 2017’s Wonder Woman.

According to Forbes, the film “opened with less tickets sold over opening weekend than The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($92m in 2014) and Godzilla ($93m in 2014). It sold fewer tickets in its opening weekend than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II ($92m in 2011) sold in one day, and grossed just slightly more than the one-day totals of Batman v Superman ($81m in 2016), The Avengers ($80m in 2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron ($84m in 2015).”

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