'Thor' Hammers Box Office Competitors

Thundering its way to the top of the box office big boys this weekend was Thor: The Dark World, bringing in $86.8 million domestic and $327.1 million in worldwide ticket sales. With the film's charismatic stars Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston pulling out all the stops on their headline-making press tours (*cough* Tom Hiddleston's swoon-worthy pillow fight with MTV's Josh Horowitz), it's no surprise the superhero action flick brought in so much cash.

But, let's not forget that 2011's Thor debuted to a pathetic, in comparison, $65.7 million opening, and grossed $449.3 million globally all in. Sure, that's still a hell of a lot of gold-encrusted hammers, but the first Hemsworth offering came out a year prior to The Avengers. Because of The Avengers massive success, it subsequently acted as a thrifty (cramming the conflicts of half a dozen superheroes into a single film) way to advertise the studio's forthcoming comic book flicks forever.

Well played Marvel, well played.

In case you haven't yet had a taste of what's in store for Thor 2, check out the trailer below (fast forward to 1:20 to see Natalie Portman backhand Tom Hiddleston "for New York"):