Weekend Box Office: Guardians #1 with $114 Million

Saturday proved to be a better day than anticipated for the third adventure of the Guardians as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 finishes its first weekend with an estimated $114 million, $4 million over what it was looking like it would finish with in yesterday’s update. By any other metric, an opening that large would be cause for celebration but for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, that number represents a fairly large drop off from the previous entry in the franchise as Guardians Vol. 2 pulled in $146.5 million when it opened exactly six years ago to the day and is also softer than what the studio (and I) were projecting on Thursday. But there are several reasons why this isn’t all bad news, with the first being that the film performed exceptionally well around the world and is looking at a nearly $270 million worldwide start followed by the fact that Vol. 3 is polling higher than the last few entries in the MCU with it hitting a 95% audience score compared to the 83% that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania saw, the 77% of Thor: Love and Thunder and the 85% from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (only Black Panther: Wakanda Forever came close with its 94% audience score.)

What does that mean? It means that with the good word of mouth the film is generating, it may persuade those who were on the fence about seeing the latest Marvel film on the big screen to actually head out and see it. For my money, this is the first MCU film that I full on enjoyed since Spider-Man: No Way Home and the first one that I think actually mattered since Avengers: Endgame. It didn’t feel like a place-holder film, it felt like it belonged. A sentiment our own Editor in Chief Chris Bumbray echoes in his 8/10 review of the film. With two movies coming next week that aren’t expected to do massive numbers (the Robert Rodriguez directed/ Ben Affleck starring Hypnotic and the octogenarian sequel Book Club: The Next Chapter) it is likely that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will retain the top spot for another week before the vroom vroom of Fast X (pronounced Fast Ten, as in “Fast Ten your set belts”) comes in and DOMinates, but all eyes will be on what type of drop it has.

Second place belongs to the also Chris Pratt starring The Super Mario Bros. Movie which saw a 54% decline with $18.6 million. Of course with a $518.1 million domestic take and over $1.1 billion in worldwide ticket sales, I think the animated plumbers are doing just fine. The movie still has the animated family market to itself for another few weeks until Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse hits theaters on June 2 with Pixar’s Elemental releasing on June 16. 

Coming in third place is Evil Dead Rise that continues to bring in the horror audiences with an additional $5.7 million added to its $54.1 domestic total. With an under $20 million budget and an over $100 million worldwide gross, this film has far exceeded expectations and should open the door to future films in the world of the Evil Dead as the producers have said they plan on making new movies every two to three years (although, please don’t! Make new films, but a new film that often will only water down this iconic 40 year old franchise).

Fourth place looks like it will be the big screen adaptation of the classic book Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret with an additional $3.3 million added to its lackluster $12.6 million total domestic take. The film has phenomenal critical numbers with a 99% Rotten Tomatoes score accompanied by a 94% audience score and an A cinemascore, so the fact that it is tanking this hard is a bit perplexing, especially when you consider how well a movie like Where The Crawdads Sing did just a year ago. I am confident this film will find its audience one day.

Fifth place goes to the new release film Love Again that looks to have not made an impact in its big screen bow, pulling in just $2.4 million. With a relatively low budget of $9 million, it is possible that this one can eventually be profitable, but the attempt at counter programming to a big Marvel film seems to have been a missed attempt. Although the people that did pay to see it, seem to enjoy it with a 94% audience score, which is a massive improvement over its 17% critical score.

The remainder of the top ten are your holdovers including four R rated films with John Wick: Chapter 4 pulling in $2.3 million, Air taking in an additional $1.3 million, Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant taking in $1.2 million and Sisu rounding it out with $1.08 million, while the PG13 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves sees an additional $1.5 million added to its domestic total of $90.9 million.

Were you able to make it to theaters this weekend? If so, let us know what you saw in the comments section and don’t forget to take our weekly poll where we ask: What is your Favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie?