'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' Flies to $118 Million Debut
Continuing the tradition of MCU films kicking off the summer moviegoing season on the first weekend of May, James Gunn's swan song to Guardians of the Galaxy netted a solid $118.4 million opening at 4,450 locations ($26.6k PTA), landing on the higher end of pre-release expectations. It would be easy to see this as a somewhat disappointing start considering that Vol. 2 debuted to a gargantuan $146.5 million ($33.7k PTA) and that it's also not too far ahead of the original's breakout $94.3 million premiere ($23.1k PTA). However, considering the waning fan and general audience reception towards the MCU with many of its most recent installments and the oversaturation of content thanks to an onslaught of Disney+ series, Vol. 3 's performance isn't bad at all. It's the longest of the trilogy at 150 minutes and also has the weakest critical reception (a still very solid 81% score on Rotten Tomatoes), so those additional factors might have pre...