Marvel Studios’ “Thunderbolts" opened with $76 million in domestic ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday, kicking off the summer box office with a solid No. 1 debut that fell shy of Marvel’s more spectacular launches.
All eyes had been on whether “Thunderbolts” — a team-up of antihero rejects similar to “Avengers” – could restore the Walt Disney Co. superhero factory to the kind of box office performance the studio once enjoyed so regularly. The results – similar to the debuts of “The Eternals” ($71 million) and “Ant-Man and the Wasp” ($75 million) — suggested Marvel’s malaise won’t be so easy to snap out of.
