Box Office: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Opening To $110M U.S.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3, from left: Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Dave Bautista as Drax, Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Karen Gillan as Nebula, 2023. © Marvel / © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
The James Gunn Marvel Studios title is spotting $47M-$48M today, including $17.5M previews, for what will hopefully be a $110M start at 4,450 theaters. One analyst tells us that dollar for dollar that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is looking a lot like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Both movies did about $37M in presales with the latter debuting to $106.1M (which was a franchise record opening) over its Friday-Sunday.
Even though the 2017 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 did $17M previews, then a $56M Friday for a $146.5M domestic opening (the highest in the series), GOTG3 is a different beast.
Great exits from last night as we told you, however, there’s a feeling that something might be slowing the Guardians down.
Social media analytics firm RelishMix observed that there was mixed chatter out there on social for the latest Guardians movie.
“Some of those on social criticize the trailer to be the ‘worst cut trailer’ in MCU history, while questioning the use of a bland performance instead of the Bee Gees for the soundtrack and labeling it as a knock-off,” says RelishMix in their latest report.
But then there’s an upbeat vibe exclaiming that the GOTG franchise are “the best Marvel movies,” with some not ready to see it go, i.e. “‘Wish it wouldn’t end yet, my heart sinks knowing this is the end, it’s been a fun ride! Thank you and we love the soundtracks!” as well as “‘I’m glad to finally see a Marvel movie that I’m dying to see in the cinema. After all the trash we have had recently, it will be nice to see something worth watching!'”
As far as social media reach goes, it’s massive with the threequel counting 704M across TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube views, in line with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (717.8M social media universe/$187M opening) and higher than Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (669M social media universe/$177.3M opening). Viral reposting rate is massive at 42:1 for GOTG3.
GOTG3 had a huge boost in its social media wattage from a pre-game Super Bowl spot which clocked 134.1M views across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok combined, which outran Warner Bros.’ The Flash and Universal’s FastX in post game-day traffic measured by RelishMix.
RelishMix adds, “GOTG3 cast activation levels are exceptional with an overall impact at 349.9M including social icon Vin Diesel at 200.4M, Chris Pratt at 61.9M, Dave Bautista at 17.1M, Zoe Saldana at 16.6M, Maria Bakalova at 460K plus director James Gunn at 4.6M.”
The rest:
2.) Super Mario Bros (Uni/Ill) 3,909 theaters, Fri $4.2M, 3-day $18.5M (-55%), Total $518M/Wk 5
3.) Evil Dead Rise (WB) 3,036 theaters, Fri $1.7M, 3-day $5.6M (-54%), Total $53.9M/Wk 3
4.) Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret (LG) 3,343 theaters, Fri $930k, 3-day $3.3M (-51%), Total $12.6M/Wk 2
5.) John Wick Chapter 4 (LG) 1,658 theaters, Fri $600K, 3-day $2.4M (-50%), Total $180.1M/Wk 7
5.) Love Again (Sony) 2,703 theaters, Fri $850K, 3-day $2.4M/Wk 1
Source: Deadline
