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It’s the most wonderful time of the year! That’s what the holiday music already playing at the mall says and that’s what the first weekend of November has promised us for the last few years. Where the first weekend of May is the official start to the summer movie season and for a decade has been occupied by a Marvel movie, the last few years have proven the superhero masterminds have found their semi-annual counterpart. November has been the start of the winter movie season for as long as I can remember but 2013’s Thor: The Dark World, 2014’s Big Hero 6 and 2016’s Doctor Strange show that Marvel is staking another claim on the release calendar. It could even be argued that 2012’s Wreck-It Ralph was Disney’s first attempt and once they proved they could launch yet another season the Marvel flag began to fly. Can one studio… I mean, one branch of one studio… really be so powerful that they will forever remain unchallenged in their ownership of the two most guaranteed blockbuster weekends of the year?

Technically, this question was already answered in early 2016. Not long before that, both Batman vs Superman and Captain America: Civil War were scheduled for the first weekend of that May. Marvel had owned it for a while by that point but DC Comics assumed that a Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman mash-up would be stronger than Captain America 3. Then Iron Man’s presence in the movie was beefed up and the Captain’s third movie became the unofficial Avengers 2.5. Could DC’s best heroes in their first movie together finally knock Marvel’s millionth mash-up movie from the throne? No. DC chickened out, opened up earlier than Captain 3 so they could take first round of the revenue, earned less opening weekend, scored worse reviews, made less all together, and almost ended the DC movie universe.

In 2016, Marvel proved their dominance. Captain America 3 had great reviews, earned over a billion dollars and helped solidify Marvel as the everlasting gobstopper of Hollywood. Thor: Ragnarok isn’t here to prove anything new. It’s here to reinforce what we already know. Marvel movies are great, plain and simple. Thor 3’s reviews are currently 96% positive. It’s early estimates are showing this will sell more like a Marvel mash-up than a solo-Thor feature. It comes as no surprise that Marvel has featured Thor with Hulk, Loki, Doctor Strange and some new friends in the advertising. It seems to be paying off; a few weeks ago Thor 3 was tracking for a $100 million debut and DC’s upcoming Justice League was hovering around $150 million. Now both estimates are closer to $125 million. Only time will tell if Marvel’s non-Avengers team-ups can continue to dominate over DC’s best offerings. For now, here are a few ways you can prep for the first contender in Hollywood’s latest box office battle royale: the mighty Thor!

Way to Prep #1 - Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Thor: Ragnarok is part Thor 3, part Avengers 2.75, part Planet Hulk and all awesome-ness! The two true Avengers that appear in Ragnarok are Thor and Hulk. The last time we saw either of these guys was in Age of Ultron (aka Avengers 2) with both skipping out on Civil War (aka Captain America 3, aka Avengers 2.5). The reason for this lies within the final moments of Ultron. By this point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) we have learned of a few of the six Infinity Stones that will eventually make up the Infinity Gauntlet that Thanos will try to obtain in Avengers 3 in 2018. If this short description of the situation confuses you, watch this movie..

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