‘Huntsman: Winter’s War’ Flops At Box Office – Can Chris Hemsworth Open A Film That Isn’t ‘Thor’?

The Huntsman: Winter’s War, the sequel/spin-off to 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman, opened this weekend with $20 million domestically, according to THR. Those aren’t very good numbers, considering the film only made $7 million on Friday, as well as earning only $1 million in Thursday night screenings, which is really bad.

Snow White and the Huntsman performed much better, earning $20 million on its opening Friday, not accounting for inflation. That first film also had a budget of $175 million as opposed to Winter’s War‘s $115 million budget. Perhaps Kristen Stewart, who starred in the first film and was at the peak of her Twilight fame, not being in this film is a factor in its low opening weekend. Though, the news of the movie not opening well is just another bad sign for Chris Hemsworth’s career. As it turns out, if he isn’t playing Thor in a solo film or as part of the Avengers, Chris Hemsworth just can’t seem to open a film, at least here in the States.

The Huntsman: Winter’s War has done much better overseas having earned $80,200,000 so far, but that’s not going to be much help to Hemsworth. The Australian actor made his cinematic debut as George Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 film Star Trek, and in that same year, he filmed The Cabin in the Woods and Red Dawn, which both came out in 2012. But 2011’s Thor was the Chris Hemsworth’s first major leading role and blockbuster, one that earned $65,723,338 in its opening weekend and went on to gross $449,326,618 worldwide. Whedon’s The Avengers was, of course, an Earth-shattering success, making $207,438,708 in its opening weekend and grossing over $600 million domestically and $1,519,557,910 worldwide.

And the role of the Norse God of Thunder was most definitely the best thing that could have happened to Hemsworth’s career. Snow White and the Huntsman only earned $396,592,829 worldwide, and Cabin in the Woods certainly did not open with impressive numbers. The horror-comedy only grossed $14 million in its opening weekend and was never able to reach passed $50 million domestically, only earning $42 million. The remake of Red Dawn that Chris also starred in only made $44 million worldwide.

Chris Hemsworth has never sold himself as a mediocre or even bad actor. He earned critical praise, along with actor Daniel Bruhl, in Ron Howard’s 2013 film Rush. The movie made $26 million domestically and $90 million worldwide, but it was at least able to showcase Hemsworth’s range as an actor. The film itself was also praised as being one of the best in that year. And the roaring financial success came back with Marvel Studios’ Thor: The Dark World that same year. The sequel was a bigger financial success than its predecessor, but not by much. The film made $206,362,140 domestically and $644,602,516 worldwide, and on top of that, the movie wasn’t met with as much positive praise as the first one was.

Michael Mann’s 2015 crime drama Blackhat was a tremendous bomb at the box office and was poorly received by critics. While the film had a budget of nearly $70 million, it only brought in an embarrassing $8 million domestically and couldn’t even gross $20 million worldwide. Things turned around that same year with Avengers: Age of Ultron, which made $1.4 billion worldwide. Then, the year closed with another failure. In the Heart of the Sea, Hemsworth’s second collaboration with Ron Howard, only made $25 million domestically and $93 million worldwide.

“We had a tremendous group of filmmakers and actors who made a beautiful action-packed film based on a fairy-tale universe,” Nick Carpou, Universal’s domestic distribution chief, said, speaking about The Huntsman: Winter’s War. “Frankly, we would have loved to see more people buy tickets to see it, but there’s no denying the quality of the film and the quality of the performances.”

The Huntsman: Winter’s War may end up earning only $50 million during its domestic run and a little over $130 million worldwide, which is indeed a major flop.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]