They may have expected more thunder than they got: Thor 4: Love and Thunder made a weaker box office debut than we are used to seeing from superheroes. The real winners, you may have guessed it, were still the little yellow minions.

A little nastiness and loads of fun seem the right combination to defend the top spot as Minions 2 proved. The banana-shaped troublemakers, one-eyed and two-eyed with their weird ski goggles were hardly impressed by the appearance of a Nordic god in the charts and kept ruling last weekend’s box office.

Said Nordic god, the mighty Thor (Chris Hemsworth), is now in his fourth outing. After he successfully fought against Thanos in the ensemble films of the franchise, Avengers: Infinity Wars and Avengers: Endgame, he lost his home in the first spin-off. Then a new Asgard was created in Norway, and the beautiful Valkyrie played by Tessa Thompson reigned supreme while Thor took off to space with the Guardians of the Galaxy Starlord and Rocket. In this new film, Thor runs into his old love Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) who herself turns into mighty Thor.

Director Taiki Waititi, who already helmed Thor 3 and introduced lots of humor, stunning fans of the franchise when he declared that the fourth movie would be “a crazy romance. Bigger, louder and even more bombastic”. And not to spoil the viewing experience, but Waititi definitely went with the times, when writing a storyline in which the bi-sexual Valkyrie needs to choose a queen to rule the new Asgard. But is it Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander) or Jane Foster? Meanwhile, Thor has to fight Gorr, the god butcher, played by a remarkably villainous Christian Bale. Russell Crowe reprises his role as Zeus. Vin Diesel lends his voice to the character of Groot and Bradley Cooper to Rocket, and Waititi himself is the voice of Korg.

Which means that after three weeks on top, between bananas and gods, Top Gun: Maverick held on to third place at the expense of Jurassic World: Ein Neues Zeitalter (Jurassic World: Dominion) which fell two spots from last week and ended up fourth. This also caused Elvis to slip once more and hit the ground in fifth place, losing any chance to ever climb the charts again.

A German film is the second most successful debut of the week: Liebesdings (Love Stuff) is a romantic comedy with German sex symbol Elyas M’Barek. He plays Marvin Bosch, a film star who disappears on the day of his newest premiere, after a gossip journalist played by Alexandra Maria Lara reveals some unsavory details about his life during an interview for his promo tour. Bosch flees the spotlight and finds refuge in a small theater run by the feminist Frieda (Lucie Heinze). Director Anita Decker took the reins for this, her second film, the first one being the equally successful Traumfrauen (Dreamwomen) in 2015.

The horror film The Black Phone and the slapstick comedy Die Geschichte der Menschheit – leicht gekürzt (The Story of Mankind – slightly shortened), ended up in seventh and eighth place.

Two other debuts round out the top ten: in ninth spot is pure family entertainment in the form of Alfons Zitterbacke – Endlich Klassenfahrt (Alfons Zitterbacke – Finally Schooltrip) based on the beloved childrens’ book from the former GDR. And in tenth place, Austria’s legendary Empress Elisabeth deals with the pains of aging – at 40 – in Corsage, a costume drama written and directed by Marie Kreutzer.

The film also debuted high in the Austrian charts – not surprisingly or most surprisingly depending on how one looks at it. The obsession with the former Bavarian princess who married her first cousin, the Emperor of Austria at 15 years old in 1853, is strong in both German speaking countries. The “Sisi” cult (Sisi being Elisabeth’s nickname) which began during her lifetime never ended. But the film presents nothing new. The highly sensitive Empress with her beauty obsession, her bulimia and her fitness addiction has been depicted ad nauseum in more than 100 films and TV-series. It may just be the simple fact that the travails of Elisabeth of Austria resonate strongly with female audiences precisely because they are much more modern day than 19^th century problems.