Box office preview: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ will tower over Mother’s Day weekend

Edward Douglas
·4 min read
2

A few new titles open this weekend, some quite moderately, in the hopes of offering something unique to rival “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” Remember, it’s Mother’s Day on Sunday, where the moms get to pick the movie for once. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

Regardless of the number of new entries this weekend, Marvel’s “Guardians,” directed by James Gunn, will remain above the rest with a second weekend of around $50 million or more, capitalizing on positive word-of-mouth from audiences from its opening.

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Released by Focus Features into 3,000 theaters is the comedy sequel “Book Club: The Next Chapter,” once again starring Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candace Bergen and Mary Steenburgen, along with Andy Garcia, Don Johnson and Craig T. Nelson. In the movie, once again written and directed by Bill Holderman and Erin Simms, Bergen’s Sharon is getting married, and her besties decide to take a bachelorette trip to Italy together, with all sorts of humor that is mainly targeted towards older women, including moms.

SEE ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ trailer: The end of the road for James Gunn

The original “Book Club” was released by Paramount (who released the slightly similar “80 for Brady” in February), and it managed to open with $13.6 million in May 2018 with significant legs to make $68.5 million over the course of that summer. Focus is hoping that the sequel will perform similarly was counter-programming to the abundance of dude movies in theaters between now and Memorial Day when Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” will change that.

Reviews so far have been generally positive, but really, the movie’s success will rely solely on how many fans of the impressive cast want to see more of their characters, plus how many families with older kids see this as a good choice of movie to see with their mothers/wives on Sunday. There’s a good chance this could open with a similar $13 to 14 million this weekend, which would allow it to push ahead of “The Super Mario Bros.” for second place.

SEE May 2023 box office preview

Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez returns with the sci-fi thriller “Hypnotic,” starring Ben Affleck and Alice Braga, in which Affleck plays a detective looking for his daughter, who gets caught up in a secret government program. The movie was produced by the defunct Solstice Studios and was also disrupted due to COVID, but it’s being released by Ketchup Entertainment into an unknown number of theaters nationwide. Affleck has generally been doing well this year with the success of Amazon’s “Air” (which just crossed $50 million), although this one may be less of a dad movie and might appeal to younger guys who have already seen everything else in theaters. Still, it probably won’t end up with much more than $6 to 8 million in fourth place, although reviews probably won’t be released until sometime Wednesday.

Furthermore, Sony is releasing “Knights of the Zodiac,” a live action adaptation of Masami Kurumada‘s manga “Saint Seiya,” which stars Mackenyu – the son of Japanese martial arts legend Sonny Chiba – as well as Famke Janssen, Sean Bean, Mark Dacacos and Nick Stahl. Although it’s only opening in 750 theaters, this is not being released through Sony’s anime branch, Crunchyroll, though it will hope to bring a similar audience. Although it might not be enough to get into the Top 5, it could end up with somewhere between $2 and 3 million in the bottom half of the Top 10.

SEE 2023 box office hits: Every movie that made more than $100 million

Similarly, Viva Kids, who released “The Amazing Maurice” earlier this year, is releasing the animated “Rally Road Racers” into roughly 1,500 theaters, featuring a voice cast that includes Oscar winner J.K. Simmons, John Cleese, Chloe Bennet (“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”), Sharon Horgan and Jimmy O. Yang. It involves a road race around Asia’s Silk Road trade route, and though there isn’t a ton of family-friendly fare other than “Super Mario Bros.,” it’s hard to imagine many parents will be aware of this one.

Charlie Day follows his voice role as Luigi in the massive blockbuster “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” with his directorial debut, “Fool’s Paradise,” an ensemble comedy in which he plays a “fool-for-love” who becomes a celebrity. The cast includes Jason Sudeikis, Adrien Brody, Jason Bateman, Kate Beckinsale, Adrien Brody and many others, and though Roadside Attractions is giving this a moderate release, that might not be enough for it to make too much headway into the Top 10.

Check back on Sunday to see how the above films fare, and whether any of the other returning movies recover after a weekend with many massive drops.

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