James Gunn’s Gang Of Galactic Rascals Proves Box Office As Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 enjoyed the best second-weekend hold of any Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel and one of the best among MCU titles, according to Sunday’s national ratings.
From Marvel Studios and Disney, the threequel grossed an estimated $60.5 million from 4,450 theaters on its second release, down just 48% and more than enough to crush the competition. On top of the good news, the pic crossed the $200 million mark domestically to finish Sunday with a cumulative $213.2 million.
Abroad, Guardians 3 took in an additional $91.9 million from 52 markets for a foreign total of $315.6 million — including $58.4 million from China — and $528.8 million worldwide.
Marvel Movies Have Taken Bigger Than Usual Drops Lately, So Guardians 3 is good news for Kevin Feige’s Marvel Studios. This includes February 2023 Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniawhich fell almost 70% in its second weekend.
Before Guardians 3only five films from the MCU universe with more than 30 titles fell 50% or less in their second weekend. The list is topped by Black Panther (45 percent) and followed by Thor (47%), strange doctor (49%), Iron Man (50%) and The Avengers (50 percent).
Chris Pratt in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.’
Courtesy of Marvel Studios
Held at No. 2 was Universal and Illumination The movie Super Mario Bros., which grossed $13 million from 3,800 sites in its sixth weekend for a domestic total of $536 million and $1.21 billion worldwide. This week, the blockbuster broke another record by overtaking Minions become the fourth greatest animated film of all time and the greatest universal animation of all time, not adjusted for inflation.
New offer Book Club: The Next Chapter only managed a third-place finish with a disappointing $6.5 million from 3,500 theaters domestically, well behind the first’s $13.6 million opening Reading Club in 2018. From Focus Features, the film’s star-studded ensemble cast is again led by Candice Bergen, Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton and Mary Steenburgen.
book club 2 had hoped to see a big bump through Mother’s Day.
But complicating factors include an average CinemaScore B from audiences (the first pic earned an A-) and unfavorable reviews. Plus, in the age of streaming, older women remain a tough demo to win over.
Among Friday ticket buyers for book club 273% were female, while 67% were 47 and older, of which nearly 50% were over 55.
The news is significantly worse for the weekend’s other new player, Hypnotic. Directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring Ben Affleck, the sci-fi action thriller may only earn $2.3 million from 2,118 theaters for a sixth-place finish (Affleck has double duty this weekend, between Hypnotic and his directorial effort Airwhich hits Prime Video after an exclusive run in theaters).
Hypnotic got stuck when distribution and production company Solstice Entertainment went out of business. Independent distributor Ketchum stepped in and is releasing the film domestically in tandem with Relativity. The photo also stars Alice Barga, JS Pardo, Hala Finley and Dayo Okeniyi.
More soon.
May 14, 7:51 a.m. PT: Updated with revised estimates.
Ben Affleck and Alice Braga in “Hypnotic”.
Ketchup Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection