Weekend box office: Guardians #1 with $114 million

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 reigned supreme with an estimated $114 million opening weekend

Saturday turned out to be a better day than expected for the third adventure of the Guardians as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ends its first weekend with around $114 million, $4 million more than what it looked like in yesterday’s update. By any other measure, such a grand opening would be cause for celebration, but for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, that number represents a pretty significant drop from the previous entry in the franchise, as Guardians Vol. 2 grossed $146.5 million when it opened exactly six years ago to the day and is also sweeter than what the studio (and I) were projecting on Thursday. But there are several reasons why it’s not all bad news, the first being that the film has done exceptionally well globally and is eyeing a nearly $270 million worldwide debut, followed by the fact that Flight. 3 probes higher than the latest MCU entries with an audience score of 95% compared to the 83% that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania seen, the 77% of Thor: Love and Thunder and the 85% of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (only Black Panther: Wakanda Forever came close with its audience score of 94%.)

What does that mean? This means that with the good word of mouth generated by the movie, it can persuade those who were hesitant to see the latest Marvel movie on the big screen to come out and see it. For my money, this is the first MCU movie I’ve fully enjoyed since Spider-Man: No Coming Home and the first one that I think really mattered since Avengers: Endgame. It didn’t feel like a placeholder movie, it felt like it belonged. A sentiment our own editor Chris Bumbray echoed in his 8/10 review of the film. With two movies coming next week that aren’t expected to do a lot (the Robert Rodriguez/Ben Affleck directed with Hypnotic and the octogenarian suite Book Club: The Next Chapter) it is likely that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will retain first place for another week before the vroom vroom of x fast (pronounced Fast Tenas in “Fast Ten your set belts”) arrives and DOMinates, but all eyes will be on the type of drop he has.

Second place also belongs to Chris Pratt with The movie Super Mario Bros. which saw a 54% drop with $18.6 million. Of course, with a domestic take of $518.1 million and over $1.1 billion in worldwide ticket sales, I think Animated Plumbers are doing very well. The film still has the lively family market to itself for a few more weeks until Spider-Man: Through the Spider-Verse hits theaters June 2 with Pixar Elementary out June 16.

Coming to third place is Evil Dead Rise which continues to pull in horror audiences with another $5.7 million added to its domestic total of $54.1. With a budget of less than $20 million and grossing over $100 million worldwide, this film far exceeded expectations and should open the door for future films in the world of evil Dead as the producers said they plan to make new movies every two or three years (although please don’t! Make new movies, but a new movie that will often just dilute this iconic 40-year-old franchise.)

Fourth Place Seems To 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 total domestic take of $12.6 million. 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’s so harsh is a bit confusing, especially when you consider how much a film is like Where the Crawdads sing done just over a year ago. I am convinced that this film will find its audience one day.

Fifth place goes to the new film love one more time which appears to have had no impact on its big-screen arc, grossing just $2.4 million. With a relatively low budget of $9 million, it’s possible this one will eventually pay off, but the attempt to counter-schedule a big Marvel movie seems like a failed attempt. Although people who paid to see it seem to like it with an audience score of 94%, which is a huge improvement from its 17% review score.

The rest of the top ten are your leftovers, including four R-rated films with John Wick: Chapter 4 grossing $2.3 million, Air collecting an additional $1.3 million, Guy Ritchie’s Pact collecting $1.2 million and Sisu rounding it out with $1.08 million, while the PG13 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Thieves sees an additional $1.5 million added to its national total of $90.9 million.

Were you able to go to the cinema this weekend? If so, let us know what you saw in the comments section and don’t forget to take part in our weekly poll where we ask you: What’s your favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe movie?