Marvel Studios’ latest film Captain Marvel is starting strong at the box office after posting the second-highest Thursday opening night in the history of March. The Brie Larson-led solo film for Carol Danvers is the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film with a female lead character, and there’s been plenty of excitement over the film’s launch - despite some trolling that has taken place.

Interest has been known to be high ever since early projections for Captain Marvel’s box office were made. When Marvel finally put tickets on sale earlier this year, the film became one of the best pre-selling MCU films in history. Official box office estimates for the film began with a conservative $100 million opening weekend, but the early reviews helped Captain Marvel find even more positivity and support. The last projections before the film launched pointed to an opening upwards of $150M domestically.

After the Thursday night previews, Captain Marvel is indeed off to a great, near record-setting start. THR shares that the movie earned $20.7M in its opening night domestically, which is the second best ever for a March launch. The only movie Captain Marvel failed to beat is Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which received mixed reviews but starred DC’s Trinity. BvS earned $27.7M in previews and made $166M in its opening weekend, so Captain Marvel should fall slightly behind this at its current pace.

The impressive start for Captain Marvel also places it among the highest openings for any MCU film. The solo film’s preview numbers only trail Avengers: Infinity War ($39 million), Avengers: Age of Ultron ($27.6 million), Black Panther ($25.2 million), and Captain America: Civil War ($25 million). Each of these films opened to over $175M domestically. Of these titles though, Captain Marvel is the only one to be the first installment of a franchise and the character’s MCU debut, which truly puts the film in a league of its own.

With $20.7M already earned domestically, Captain Marvel’s worldwide haul is already near $100M. The film earned $44M worldwide over the prior two days. China responded with a $34M total all on its own, which is the second best MCU first day in this region, and is expected to bring in nearly $100M on its own. Prior projections called for a $350M opening weekend for Captain Marvel worldwide, so it is well on its way to making that possible. As long as the movie can maintain its current trajectory, it will help spark 2019’s box office, which has been historically low to this point.

MORE: How Captain Marvel Connects to Avengers: Endgame

Source: THR

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