Marvel's 'Guardians' paces to easy lead at weekend box office
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (NYSE:DIS) took pole position at the domestic box office over the weekend as expected, with a strong total that kicked off Marvel's summer season but still fell slightly short of expectations.
The third film in Marvel's GotG franchise is drawing the weakest critical response of the series, but still grossed $114M over the weekend to easily claim the top spot over fifth-week holdover (and 2023's biggest film) The Super Mario Bros. Movie (NASDAQ:CMCSA), which grossed $18.6M over the three days, according to Comscore data.
The Mario movie hit a new milestone, though, crossing the half-billion-dollar mark domestically. On a worldwide basis, of course, it's drawn $1.16B.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (DIS) added $168.1M internationally to bring its opening-weekend worldwide total to $282.1M. It opened No. 1 on a non-local basis in all key markets, except Japan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The global performance is on part with the series' Vol. 2 and 70% ahead of the first film, Comscore noted.
Domestically it grossed a per-theater average of $25,618.
One bit of romance-oriented counter-programming had a light opening: Love Again (SONY) drew just $2.43M, good enough to be the fifth-best performing film of the weekend. It fell behind third-place Evil Dead Rise (NASDAQ:WBD), which added $5.7M to bring its cumulative total to $54.1M, and fourth-place Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (NYSE:LGF.A) (LGF.B), with $3.38M in its second weekend.
Blockbuster-focused IMAX (IMAX) had its biggest opening weekend of the year with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, hitting $25M on a global basis led by $10.7M in North America.
Cinema tickers: AMC Entertainment (AMC); Cineworld (OTCPK:CNNWQ); Cinemark (CNK); (IMAX); Marcus (MCS); Reading International (RDI); Cineplex (CGX:CA); National CineMedia (NCMI).