Box office: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3’ kicks off summer with slightly disappointing $114 million

“Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3,” the conclusion to the filmmaker’s superhero space opera james gunn, kicked off the summer movie season this weekend, though it didn’t fare much better than “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” a few months ago. Here’s this weekend’s box office report.

Despite some delays, “Guardians, Vol. 3″ brought back the entire cast from the previous two films, including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, David Bautista, Sean Gunnand the voices of bradley cooper like Rocket and Wine Diesel like Groot. Since the first film in 2014, they have been joined by Pom Klementieffand for this film, they face Poultryis Adam Warlock and Chukwudi Iwuji like the High Evolutionary.

After making $17.5 million in Thursday previews, it racked up $48.2 million on Friday from 4,450 theaters, leading to an opening weekend estimate of $114 million. dollars. That’s only about $8 million more than ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,’ which opened in February, but even that managed to hit $808,000 this weekend as it expanded to just 185 theaters.

Overseas, “Guardians” added another $168.1 million, with China topping other territories with $28.1 million, representing a global opening of $282 million for Marvel’s latest.

Reviews were generally mixed to positive with 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, as it became the third “Guardians” film to receive an “A” CinemaScore in audience polls. We’ll have to see if that ultimately helps it fare better than “Quantumania.”

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was one of the few returning movies that didn’t lose a ton of theaters, despite earning its first huge hit after finally crossing $500 million on Friday. In its fifth weekend, it grossed $18.6 million, down 54% from the previous weekend with a total domestic gross of $518.1 million, now well into the top 20 of blockbusters of all time.

Universal’s massive animated hit added another $50.3 million internationally this weekend, including $18.2 million from Japan, the home country of the popular video game franchise. Nintendo. Japan has raised $48.4 million so far, but trails Mexico, which boasts the highest grossing outside of North America with 80.6 millions of dollars.

“Evil Dead Rise” fell to third place with $5.7 million (down 53%), bringing its domestic gross to $54.1 million. With $9.1 million made this weekend overseas for an international take of $60.7 million, the horror-thriller has grossed $114.8 million worldwide, not bad for a film originally intended for the HBO Max streamer.

Lionsgate’s adaptation of Judy Blume‘s “Are you there God?” It’s Me, Margaret” held up better than many other comeback films against “Guardians,” but still fell 50% from its opening weekend to take fourth place with 3.4. So far, it’s grossed $12.7 million, and it’s got Mother’s Day weekend coming up to possibly get a bump in mother-daughter viewings.

Sony released the romantic comedy “Love Again” with Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam HeughanAnd Celine Dion in 2,703 theaters with little fanfare, so its poor $2.4 million opening weekend should have been expected. Still, that was enough for it to open in fifth place, although that wasn’t that far ahead of ‘John Wick: Chapter 4,’ which dropped to sixth place with $2.36 million (in down 53%), so it may be too early for “Love Again” to claim that positioning. The latter has now grossed $180 million domestically, making it one of the other hits highlights of the pre-summer movie season.

Paramount’s fantasy adventure “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” featuring Chris Pine And Michelle Rodriguez, lost a ton of theaters and dropped 62% to sixth place with $1.2 million. It has grossed $90.9 million domestically so far and only has a moderate chance of hitting $100 million by the end of the summer if Paramount plays its cards right.

Ben AffleckSneaker drama “Air” took seventh place with $1.4 million, another steep drop of 63%, but managed to gross $50.3 million before its eventual release on Prime Video next Friday.

Shout! Studios released the romantic comedy “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” from the director “Elizabeth” Shekhar Kapurin 560 theaters, but no box office has yet been reported.

The majority of players had ‘gatekeepers’ in mind with between $100 million and $150 million in the Gold Derby box office prediction game, as well as the right placements for the next three movies, so the winner of this week’s contest will likely come down to the 49 players who picked “Love Again” for fifth place, though that may still depend on actual box office numbers to be released on Monday.

49 players went five-for-six in the April 28 box office game — no one picked the ‘Star Wars: Return of the Jedi’ re-release to take fourth place — and while there were didn’t have many big points, “JoshTheCritic” won the weekend with 2,658 points.

This Friday sees the release of “Book Club: The Next Chapter”, Robert Rodriguez”Hypnotic” with Ben Affleck, and other odds and ends. Check back Wednesday for the weekly box office preview of Gold Derby.

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