Established comic book franchise, a character audiences have taken to in a couple of films, part of the Marvel Universe.

Will “Thor, the Dark World,” which has pretty much exactly the same story beats as “Thor” blow up at the box office this weekend?

It should do well. VERY well. Somewhere in the $80-100 million range.

Box Office Mojo says “anything above $85 million will be a win.” Yeah. Upper $80s says he.

Variety one-ups him, figuring $95 million will be the number to hit.

Box Office Mojo thinks the holiday movie season will erupt with an $86 million dollar weekend for “Thor: The Dark World.”

I lean toward the lower number. These are fun films, but they don’t have the Downey top drawer appeal any more than “Captain America” does. $85 seems on the high end of “about right.”

“About Time” opens wider this weekend but nobody expects this no-big stars (Rachel McAdams) time travel romance to collect much over $5 million, even in over a thousand theaters.

“Ender’s Game” is expected to plummet. “Bad Grandpa” should pull a second place finish. Or could. “Gravity” continues to hold, and there’s a good chance “12 Years a Slave” will linger around the top ten.