Topline
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, director James Gunn’s finale to the Marvel cinematic universe blockbuster franchise, took in $17.5 million in Thursday previews, outperforming its two predecessors and taking down The Super Mario Bros. Movie for the top spot in the domestic box office.
Key Facts
The long-awaited finale narrowly beat the 2017 sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which made $17 million in previews, as well as the first installment, which made $11.2 million in previews in 2014, Variety and Deadline reported.
Internationally, Guardians of the Galaxy made $35 million in Thursday previews, and is expected to take in between $110 million and $120 million over the weekend.
That would put the film just above Marvel’s previous release, February’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which also made $17.5 million in previews and $106 million in its opening weekend, though the third Ant-Man movie underperformed compared to its predecessors, taking in less than $475 million globally, according to Box Office Mojo.
The Guardians of the Galaxy finale, starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper and Karen Gillan, was the biggest movie at the domestic box office Thursday, overtaking Super Marios, which has been the highest-grossing film in the U.S. every day since its April 4 premier, according to data from Box Office Mojo.
Contra
Reviews of the franchise finale have so far been mixed, with a 92% audience and critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a score of 65 out of 100 from critics on Metacritic. One review in The Guardian heralded the film as “spectacular, spirited and often funny,” though a New York Times review slammed it as a “dour, visually off-putting two-and-a-half-hour A.S.P.C.A. (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) nightmare.”
Tangent
The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the Universal Pictures, Illumination and Nintendo-produced adaptation of the classic Mario Bros. video game franchise, made more than $140 million in the U.S. in its opening weekend last month, making it the third biggest premier for an animation at the domestic box office, only behind Disney’s Incredibles 2 (2018) and the 2019 remake of The Lion King. The star-studded Super Marios movie surpassed $1 billion internationally in less than four weeks, and is already the highest grossing video game adaptation of all time.
Further Reading
‘Super Mario Bros.’ Had The Third-Biggest U.S. Premiere For An Animated Film—Here’s The Entire Top 10 (Forbes)
Weekend Box Office: ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Will Hit $1 Billion In Sales On Sunday, Studio Says (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/05/05/guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3-sets-franchise-record-with-175-million-in-previews/