Weekend Box Office Results: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 kicks off the summer movie season with a bang

Summer movie season is here and it’s looking good. AT The movie Super Mario Bros. like the movie no one can catch. Are there even potential breakouts like last year’s Top Gun: Maverick where a combination of nostalgia, a two-year waiting period, genuine fun and word-of-mouth will take something into the stratosphere? The summer of 1989 called and would like to suggest a finale IndianaJones adventure and the return of Michael Keaton as Batman In the flash as potentials, at least to win the summer crown. But the only films to open as late as the summer and come out on top were Marvel’s. Black Widow in the truncated summer of 2021 and the August 1 release of guardians of the galaxy in 2014. This week, James Gunn’s Flight. 3 tries to make his case to win the summer, but he may need stronger evidence.

---

Harvest King: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Kicking off the summer movie season with a bang

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 opened with $17.5 million in its Thursday shows and started operating with around $114 million. It’s the third-lowest total for a film to open at $15 million in “previews”, ahead of only Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (opening $22.5 million/$77.8 million) and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 ($16 million / $102.6 million opening). Sorry to start with such pessimism, but here’s another consideration. An opening of over $115 million used to guarantee the MCU a domestic gross of $300 million in the past. Every movie that has opened at least that many has reached the milestone, and Guardians 3 is on the cusp of that and could see it go just above or even below when the final numbers come out on Monday. The Marvel movies to achieve this (while opening under $100 million) were 2008’s Iron Man and the first guardians of the galaxy. (Spider-Man: No Coming Home had a $92.5 million weekend after already spending three days in theaters and grossed over $390 million.)

Back in February Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania barely doubled its $106 million start, though some may point to its “B” Cinemascore as representative of the loss of its core audience which more recently marked Marvel below its typical “A-” and above. above. Eternals, Thor: Love and Thunderand the strange doctor suite all got a ‘B’ or a ‘B+’. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 may have changed things with his base, as he received an “A” just like the first two Guardians did. Again, 21 of the MCU films received an “A” or an “A+” and had an average multiple of 2.88. Average gets Guardians Vol. 3 at around $328 million. On the half-empty side, the last four MCU films have averaged a multiple of just 2.27, which would put Flight. 3 at around $258 million. Wild potential swings. The film will have one more week at No. 1 before x fast fate, so next week will tell a bigger story for the $250 million production, which will need three-quarters of a billion to break even. After this weekend, its worldwide total stands at $282 million.

---

The Top 10 and beyond: mario finally fall, John Wick And Air Reach milestones

Chris Pratt’s other top 10 film dropped its four-week run to the top of the box office, but became the 19th film in history to cross half a billion domestically. The movie Super Mario Bros. earned an additional $18.6 million, the 15th best fifth weekend ever. It has now grossed $518 million after 38 days, which is the 12th highest total ever for this period. The movie is still $23 million behind the pace of Incredibles 2, which grossed $608 million and had a fifth weekend of $16.2 million. At present, mario may be looking to settle somewhere between the first theatrical release of Titanic and 2019 The Lion King, making it the 14th highest-grossing film ever made in North America. Worldwide, it sits at $1.15 billion, putting it just short of the all-time top 25.

Evil Dead Rise fell back to third place with $5.7 million. That brings its total to $54.1 million and puts the horror movie on pace with Kill Bill Vol. 2, which had a $5.8 million third weekend, bringing its 17-day total to $52.6 million. This puts Evil Dead’The final domestic estimate is between $65-70 million, a smash hit for Warner Bros. Less, unfortunately, is the highest rated film of the year in Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret. It fell to just $3.2 million for a total of $12.5 million. It will surpass Kelly Fremon Craig’s last film, The edge of seventeen ($14.4 million), but Lionsgate hasn’t spread the word for this one, and it won’t recoup its $30 million budget.

One of the lowest rated films of the year, love one more time (12%), was opened by Sony in 2,703 theaters and grossed $2.4 million. There was clearly a reason they hadn’t screened Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ romance ahead of time for reviews. But two other of the year’s top-rated films took small steps for themselves. John Wick: Chapter 4 earned an additional $2.3 million to bring his total to over $180 million, and Ben Affleck’s Air took in $1.6 million and hit the $50 million mark. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Thievesalthough critically acclaimed, earned over $90 million, but is still a total bombshell for Paramount.

---

On the Vine: Paramount hopes audiences will join their Reading Club For The next chapter

The only challenger for Guardians next weekend is the sequel, Book Club: The Next Chapter, with Jane Fonda, Mary Steenburgen and Diane Keaton. Focus Features is picking up the release of this one from Paramount, which grossed $68.5 million in the summer of 2018. You can also look for Ben Affleck in Robert Rodriguez. Hypnotic and, in limited release, the story of the creation of Matt Johnson’s first smartphone blackberry with Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton, which is currently at an impressive 97% on the Tomatometer.

---

Full list of box office results: May 5-7, 2023

---

81%

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
(2023)

• $114 million ($114 million total)

59%

The movie Super Mario Bros.
(2023)

• $18.5 million ($518 million total)

84%

Evil Dead Rise
(2023)

• $5.7 million ($54.1 million total)

99%

Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret.
(2023)

• $3.2 million ($12.5 million total)

17%

love one more time
(2023)

• $2.4 million ($2.4 million total)

94%

John Wick: Chapter 4
(2023)

• $2.3 million ($180 million total)

92%

Air
(2023)

• $1.6 million ($50.5 million total)

91%

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Thieves
(2023)

• $1.5 million ($90.9 million total)

83%

Guy Ritchie’s Pact
(2023)

• $1.3 million ($14.9 million total)

94%

Sisu
(2022)

• $1.2 million ($5.4 million total)

---

Erik Childress can be heard weekly rating the box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and her Movie Madness podcast.

[box office figures via Box Office Mojo]

---

Thumbnail image by ©Marvel Studios

On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.