Box office: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3’ kicks the summer off with a slightly disappointing $114 million
“Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3,” the conclusion to the superhero space opera from filmmaker James Gunn, kicked off the summer movie season this weekend, although it didn’t fare that much better than “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” a few months back. Here is this weekend’s box office report.
Despite a few delays, “Guardians, Vol. 3” brought back the entire cast from the previous two movies, including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Sean Gunn, and the voices of Bradley Cooper as Rocket and Vin Diesel as Groot. Since the first movie in 2014, they’ve been joined by Pom Klementieff, and for this movie, they face off against Will Poulter’s Adam Warlock and Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary.
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After making $17.5 million in Thursday previews, it racked up $48.2 million on Friday in 4,450 theaters, which led to an opening weekend estimate of $114 million. That is only about $8 million more than “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which opened in February, but even that managed to get a bump this weekend to $808,000 as it expanded back into just 185 theaters.
Overseas, “Guardians” added another $168.1 million, with China topping other territories with $28.1 million, which adds up to a worldwide opening of $282 million for Marvel’s latest.
Reviews were generally mixed to positive with 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, while it became the third “Guardians” movie to receive an “A” CinemaScore in audience polling. We’ll have to see if that helps it ultimately fare better than “Quantumania.”
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was one of the few returning films that didn’t lose a ton of theaters, although it took its first massive hit after finally crossing $500 million on Friday. In its fifth weekend, it brought in $18.6 million, down 54% from its previous weekend with a total domestic gross of $518.1 million, now well into the top 20 all-time blockbusters.
SEE‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ trailer: The end of the road for James Gunn
Universal’s massive animated hit added another $50.3 million internationally this weekend with $18.2 million of that coming from Japan, the country that originated the popular Nintendo video game franchise. Japan has pulled in $48.4 million so far, but it trails behind Mexico, which can boast the biggest gross outside North America with $80.6 million.
“Evil Dead Rise” dropped to third place with $5.7 million (down 53%), which brought its domestic gross to $54.1 million. With the $9.1 million made this weekend overseas for an international take of $60.7 million, the horror-thriller has made $114.8 million worldwide, not bad for a movie originally intended for the streamer HBO Max.
Lionsgate’s adaptation of Judy Blume‘s “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” held better than many other returning movies against “Guardians” but still dropped 50% from its opening weekend to take fourth place with $3.4 million. So far, it has made $12.7 million, and it has the upcoming Mother’s Day weekend to possibly get a bump from mother-daughter viewings.
SEEBox office: ‘Super Mario Bros.’ approaches $500 million and enters all-time Top 20
Sony released the rom-com “Love Again” starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan, and Céline Dion into 2,703 theaters with little fanfare, so its poor opening weekend of $2.4 million should have been expected. Still, that was enough for it to open in fifth place, although it’s not that far ahead of “John Wick: Chapter 4,” which dropped to sixth place with $2.36 million (down 53%) so it may be too early for “Love Again” to claim that positioning. The latter has now grossed $180 million domestically, making it one of the other major hits from the pre-summer movie season.
Paramount’s fantasy-adventure “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” starring Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez, lost a ton of theaters and dropped 62% to sixth place with $1.2 million. It has grossed $90.9 million so far domestically, and only has a moderate chance of getting to $100 million by summer’s end if Paramount plays its cards right.
Ben Affleck’s sneaker drama “Air” took seventh place with $1.4 million, another steep 63% drop, but it has managed to bring in $50.3 million ahead of its eventual release on Prime Video this coming Friday.
Shout! Studios released the rom-com “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” from “Elizabeth” director Shekhar Kapur, into 560 theaters, but no box office has been reported as of yet.
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The majority of players had “Guardians” leading with between $100 and $150 million in the Gold Derby box office prediction game, as well as the correct placements for the next three movies, so this week’s contest winner will likely come down to the 49 players who picked “Love Again” for fifth place, although that might still depend on actual box office figures to be reported on Monday.
49 players went five-for-six in the April 28 box office game – no one picked the re-release of “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” to take fourth place – and though there weren’t many big point showings, “JoshTheCritic” did win the weekend with 2,658 points.
This Friday sees the release of “Book Club: The Next Chapter,” Robert Rodriguez’s “Hypnotic” starring Ben Affleck, and other odds and ends. Check back on Wednesday for Gold Derby’s weekly box office preview.
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