The numbers say Thor won the weekend, again taking moviegoers to that Norse altar in the sky and winning the North American box office with $34.5 million, according to early studio estimates, for its second week at the top of the heap. But the snickering Bridesmaids led by Kristen Wiig may have the last laugh. The R-rated sisterhood comedy pulled in $24.4 million, nearly twice what its home studio, Universal, had cautiously predicted. Asked to pay to see a girls-gone-wild version of a Judd Apatow farce , Mr. and Ms. Moviegoer said, “I do.”
Bridesmaids, which reunites star and cowriter Wiig with Saturday Night Live alumnus Maya Rudolph, grabbed an enthusi-wooziastic 90% from Rotten Tomatoes’ survey of movie critics to go with its just-OK B-plus CinemaScore rating of actual audience members. The film’s subtly smash opening provoked cheers among all those Hollywood women hoping to make it big with the gamier style of femme films — and such teeth-gnashing from Nikki Finke, the widely admired and feared proprietress of the Deadline Hollywood website, that she ought to schedule an emergency visit to her periodontist.
