'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 prevented the sort of crazed rush that an MCU film usually sees in its first three days. Audience reception is sky-high, with a terrific 'A' CinemaScore and 95% audience score on RT. It seems that the stellar word-of-mouth is already taking effect; Vol. 3 earned 2.46x its $48.2 million opening day, a multiple that is well ahead of Quantumania's 2.29x and the just-above-2x multiples of the three Marvel mega-openings before it. Vol. 3 will have another week to itself before Fast X races into theaters, so a strong second-weekend hold is crucial for it to get past the $300 million domestic threshold, a feat that seems fairly likely at this point.

    Overseas, Vol. 3 overperformed with a $170.9 million start, ahead of its $150 million projections heading into the weekend. Comparisons to the last Guardians are skewed due to that sequel's staggered release. This latest film notably did okay in China with $28.1 million. Though it's a far cry from the MCU's heyday in that market, it handily beats most of the post-pandemic openings of Hollywood fare, which (save for Avatar: The Way of Water) have been heavily struggling there. Word-of-mouth is extremely positive all around, pointing towards a possible $800 million finish, though $750 million would still be respectable.

    The arrival of Guardians had a clear impact on many of the holdovers. After four weekends at number one (all with sub-40% drops), Universal/Illumination's The Super Mario Bros. Movie fell 54.5% for an $18.6 million fifth weekend. The animated super hit has now accumulated $518.1 million and will soon pass 2019's The Lion King ($543.6m) to become the second-biggest animated film of all time. Incredibles 2's $608.6 million total is well out of reach now, but a $560-575 million finish is nothing to sneeze at. It has also now earned approximately $1.16 billion worldwide, putting it ahead of Minions.

    In third is WB/New Line's Evil Dead Rise. After posting a very strong hold last weekend for a violent horror sequel, it slid another decent 51.5% for $5.88 million. Its domestic total now stands at $54.25 million, just edging out the $54.24 million finish of the 2013 Evil Dead remake to become the highest-grossing film in the franchise. The worldwide total stands at a fantastic $115 million (also passing the remake's $97.5m cume). A $65 million total should still be in the cards for the overperforming fifth entry in the beloved series.

    Lionsgate's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. unfortunately couldn't turn near-perfect reception into strong staying power, falling nearly 50% for a $3.4 million second weekend. That's not a good hold at all for this type of film and definitely doesn't bode well for the rest of its run, especially as competition begins to seriously ramp up in the coming weeks.

    Sony's $9-million rom-com Love Again bombed with $2.4 million ($890 PTA). Paltry reviews (21% on RT) and nonexistent marketing/buzz did this one. Expect around $5 million total.

    John Wick: Chapter 4 fell 51.5% for $2.359 million, bringing its domestic total to $180.1 million ($406.1m worldwide). Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves earned $1.5 million (-63.7%) for a new $90.9 million cume while Air dropped 65.1% for $1.4 million ($50.2m total). Rounding out the top ten are Guy Ritchie's The Covenant tumbled 66% in week 3 for $1.2 million ($14.8m total) while Sisu plummeted 67.5% for $1.1 million ($5.5m total).

    Next weekend sees the lone wide release of Book Club: The Next Chapter, which seems unlikely to generate the same kind of sleeper success as its 2018 predecessor. Most eyes will be looking to the next weekend, where Fast X will try to prove the franchise's relevance after years of declining grosses since 2017.