UPDATED: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 kicked off the North American summer season with a solid albeit unspectacular $118.4m confirmed opening weekend which will have done little to dispel talk of superhero fatigue.
The new arrival opened in 4,450 sites and came in well below the $146.5m three-day opening weekend of its franchise predecessor in May 2017, and some way ahead of Guardians Of The Galaxy’s $94.3m debut in July 2014.
This was another lacklustre result for Marvel after the disappointing Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, which started well enough on $106.1m in February before fading away to finish on around $475m worldwide – some way behind the $622.7m final result posted by Ant-Man And The Wasp back in 2018.
James Gunn’s final Marvel film before he focuses entirely on his role as co-head of rival superhero factory DC Studios delivered an impressive $170.9m international opening weekend and combined with North America for a $289.3m global bow. Click here for Screen’s full international report.
Guardians 3 is the 32nd consecutive Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) release to debut at number one in North America. Disney executives pointed out on Sunday morning that the tentpole is the 12th to score a $100m-plus opening weekend since the start of the pandemic, and the sixth MCU title to do so.
That is a notable feat and the distribution and exhibition community will take hope as box office progresses through the calendar and Hollywood aims to beat 2022’s $3.44bn summer, powered by the $187.4m debut of last year’s season opener Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness.
Disney/Marvel executives will look to capitalise on word of mouth as the $114m haul grows in the coming weeks and executives anticipate a relatively light runway until Universal unleashes Fast X on May 19. Guardians 1 and 2 ended their North American theatrical runs on $333.7m and $389.8m, respectively.
Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan and Pom Klementieff reprise their starring roles alongside Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel voicing Rocket Racoon and Groot.
Guardians’ entry pushed Universal/Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie off its perch after four weekends as the animation crossed $500m. An $18.6m estimated fifth weekend propelled the family smash to $518.1m in North America.
Kino Lorber’s Cannes acquisition Chile ‘76 opened at number 25 and grossed $16,038 from two sites. Manuela Martelli’s drama premiered in 2022 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and is known as 1976 outside the US.
As of Friday ComScore figures showed 2023 year-to-date North American box office stood at $2.68bn powered by 30 wide releases and was tracking 35.7% ahead of 2022 by the same stage, although it fell by more than four percentage points week-on-week to trail 2019 by 26.4%.
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