Movies
‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3′ stays strong at the domestic box office
While ‘Guardians 3′ had a strong second weekend, several new movies had quiet openings.
‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3′ enjoyed a strong second weekend at the box office, something that isn’t always seen from a Marvel movie.
The threequel grossed an estimated $60.5 million from 4,450 theaters, which marks just a 49 percent decline from its opening weekend.
The figure is an impressive hold from the James Gunn film, something that isn’t all that common for a superhero movie.
After more than 30 entries from Marvel, only ‘Black Panther’ (45 percent) and ‘Thor’ (47 percent) registered stronger second weekend holds.
Prior to ‘Guardians 3′, those films were two of just five films in the MCU universe to fall 50 percent or less in their second weekends, joining ‘Doctor Strange’ (49 percent), ‘Iron Man’ (50 percent) and ‘The Avengers’ (50 percent).
It’s all the more impressive when looking at recent Marvel movies like ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ and ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’.
Those films dipped by nearly 70 percent during their second weekends despite debuting to more than $100 million.
‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3′ also passed the $200 million mark domestically, finishing Sunday with $213.2 million.
As for in the international market, ‘Guardians 3′ took in another $91.9 million from 52 markets to increase its tally to $315.6 million, putting it at $528.8 million globally.
Struggles elsewhere at the box office
Elsewhere at the box office, ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ held strong at No.2, grossing $13 million from 3,800 locations to increase its domestic tally to $536 million and $1.21 billion globally.
Other films struggled, like ‘Book Club: The Next Chapter’, which managed just a third-place finish with just $6.5 million. That figure is well below the $13.6 million the first ‘Book Club’ brought in back in 2018.
‘Hypnotic’, which stars Ben Affleck, also disappointed, with the sci-fi action-thriller earning just $2.3 million from 2,118 theaters. The film earned a C+ on CinemaScore and just 38 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
“This is a weak opening for a film that was conceived before the pandemic,” said David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “The movie cost around $65 million to make. Even five years ago, that was a lot of money for a routine crime mystery.”