Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 Box Office Challenges the MCU’s Multiverse Saga

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 new box office numbers challenge the current multiverse saga. James Gunn’s latest Marvel movie set a new record for the MCU in the post-pandemic era. However, the success of Guardians 3 could also be used as a critique of past MCU movies that have focused more on multiverse concepts with alternate timelines and realities.

According to a new report from Deadline, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 To “the best take of the second weekend for a post-pandemic Marvel Cinematic Universe title at -51% with $58 million”. The film’s opening weekend set the finale Guardians $118 million movie. Not only -51% for a second weekend is better than the previous two Guardians movies (-55%), but it’s pretty telling that these were the best second-weekend numbers Marvel Studios has had since the pandemic ended. It’s also worth noting that the most recent MCU movie with better second-weekend numbers was during COVID with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Related: Guardians of the Galaxy 4: Everything We Know

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 outperforms other MCU Multiverse movies

Compared to other post-pandemic MCU films such as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the most recent Ant-Man in the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians 3 the numbers are much stronger. Other Marvel movies had much smaller second weekend drops as Guardians 3 looks like he can get some strong legs ahead of a hectic summer release schedule. Moreover, it can be argued that Guardians 3 not pursuing newly established concepts of the multiverse may have contributed to its success.

The fact that both Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 And Shang Chi had better second weekends compared to other recent Marvel projects supports the idea that there’s still a market for Marvel movies that don’t use the Multiverse. After all, Doctor Strange 2 And Ant Man 3 have both been criticized for many of the same things in reference to their multiversal storylines. The growing consensus is that the MCU has yet to form a fully cohesive and overarching course for the Multiverse Saga that was present in the Infinity Saga with Thanos and the Infinity Stones.

Could the MCU have multiverse fatigue?

The question of multiverse fatigue of the MCU in the cinema is very real in the middle phase of this new saga. However, it seems like MCU just needs to create a stronger, more focused overarching plot behind the dynamic concepts of alternate realities and variants. In the meantime, movies like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 with more character-driven stories and virtually no connection to the multiverse may continue to play a role in their greater success by comparison.

Source: Deadline

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