‘Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3’ Rockets To $17M+; ‘Super Mario Bros’ First Illumination Movie To Jump Past $500M U.S. – Friday AM Box Office
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UPDATED, after exclusive: Disney Marvel Studio’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 saw a momentum last night with previews rising to $17.5M, which is very good for the movie. There’s been some concern heading into the weekend about how hard threequelitis is poised to hit this movie, which is very odd, because it’s a feature with a lot of heart, that’s a lot of fun. Of that amount preview number, $400K was made from 100 Imax shows on Wednesday; meaning that the Thursday preview dough for GOTG3 inches out that of GOTG2 by $100K (that was $17M).
Something to ease Disney brows: Out of the gate, Comscore/Screen Engine PostTrak scores were amazing last night with five stars, 94% positive, and an 80% recommend. Note, the fanboys and girls always come out on Thursday, but still, at least the word of mouth is getting started. The audience was made-up of 87% general audience, 13% parents and kids under 12. Kids under 12 gave the movie 4 stars, with boys making up the majority at 68%. General crowd demos were 43% guys over 25 (93% grade), 21% women over 25 (94% grade), 22% guys under 25 (95%), and 14% women under 25 (94%). The 18-34 moviegoing bunch showed up at 57%. Diversity demos for general audience counted 43% Caucasian, very strong Latino and Hispanic at 25% (a 99% grade!), Black at 16% and Asian at 8%.
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Despite the threequel having the longest running time of an installment in the trilogy at 2 1/2 hours, that’s not so long to greatly offset business (which is what many believe happened with Wakanda Forever at 2 hours and 41 minutes, even though it was 11 minutes longer). Again, when it comes to these superhero movies, many times their running times aren’t a hindrance to box office because they’re on several screens in a complex given their demand.
Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt has a lot to be proud about over the weekend; not only will he have a $100M+ opening movie, but the movie in which he provides the voice to Mario, Illumination/Universal/Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros Movie, is crossing $500M today. The pic becomes the first Illumination title in U.S. and Canada to hit that threshold ever, and as we told you last night, it’s the second fastest animated movie to that mark after Incredibles 2 in 31 days. Previous highest grossing Illumination title stateside belonged to last year’s Minions: Rise of Gru with $369.6M. Yesterday, Super Mario cleared $1.52M at 4,204 theaters, -23% from Wednesday for a fourth week of $49.5M.
Sony Screen Gems dared to go into this superhero marketplace with the romantic comedy, Love Again. The Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan movie inspired by the songs of Celine Dion only did $240K from 4PM showtimes at 2,225 locations. That’s $10K less than what George Foreman did in previews did last Thursday off 4PM starts, and that pic died with $2.9M. Even with Guardians on the marquee, New Line’s Evil Dead Rise made more in its second Thursday yesterday with $780K (-18% from Wednesday, second week of $16.1M, two week total of $48.3M) than Love Again. Not exactly the comps or audiences for Love Again, but eeks. ‘Why, papa, why?’ you ask is Sony is releasing this movie, this weekend. Well, to get the movie out ahead for Mother’s Day next weekend which has the Book Club: Chapter 2. The $9M net cost Love Again was projected to open to $5M — I dunno. Sony has global on the pic, excluding Germany.
EXCLUSIVE, Updated: Distribution sources are telling us that Disney Marvel Studios’ final James Gunn movie, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, is doing around $14M+ in previews. As we always say, that can fluctuate, but here it’s going higher by the AM. Thursday previews kicked off at 3PM, and there were 100 Imax shows on Wednesday. Note, these figures do not come from Disney.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 posted $17M on its Thursday night, repping 30% of its first Friday of $56M, on its way to a $146.5M opening weekend. The first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies got A CinemaScores,
That said, projections on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 have been wild. On early tracking three weeks ago it was at $130M, then lowered down to $110M, then I heard an estimate from an exhibitor today that was even lower, and unspeakable. Let’s just have this pic play out. Global outlook is $250M. Keep in mind, Marvel movies can always be frontloaded. While reviews have settled to around 79% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest of the trilogy (following the first film’s 92% certified fresh and 85% certified fresh), GOTG3‘s current audience score is 97% on RT (the first 2014 movie received 92% audience score on RT, while GOTG2 was lower at 87%). Advance ticket sales for GOTG3, I hear, have picked up and are nearing the $37M threshold that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania had on its Thursday eve before a $106.1M 3-day, $120.3M 4-day opening.
We’re also hearing that 62% of GOTG3‘s presales are for tonight or tomorrow. That’s encouraging when juxtaposed to the 65%-71% presales tied to the first Thursday/Friday of the last four Marvel movies.
Meanwhile, Illumination/Universal/Nintendo Super Mario Bros Movie will cross the $500M mark either tonight or tomorrow. Wednesday was $1.98M getting the videogame feature to $498M. That will rep 30 to 31 days for the pic to the half billion stateside mark. Pixar’s Incredibles 2 accomplished that box office feat in 24 days, still the fastest to do so for an animated movie. Super Mario Bros will be the second-fastest to a half billion stateside at its pace. Post pandemic, Super Mario Bros will be the fourth movie to cross $500M after Spider-Man: No Way Home ($814.1M), Top Gun: Maverick ($718.7M) and Avatar: The Way of Water ($683.9M).
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