James Gunn’s band of galactic rascals are proving their worth at the box office as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 enjoys one of the best second-weekend holds of any title in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
From Marvel Studios and Disney, the threequel is on course to gross roughly $58 million from 4,450 theaters in its sophomore outing, a mere 51 percent decline and more than enough to crush the competition. In more good news, the pic is crossing the $200 million mark domestically.
Marvel movies have suffered larger-than-usual drops of late, so Guardians 3 is welcome news for Kevin Feige’s Marvel Studios. That includes February 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which fell off nearly 70 percent in its second weekend.
Only six films in the 30 title-plus MCU universe have fallen 51 percent or less in their second weekends. The list is topped by Black Panther (45 percent) and followed by Thor (47 percent), Doctor Strange (49 percent), Iron Man (50 percent), The Avengers (50 percent) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (51 percent).
Holding at No. 2 is Universal and Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which is on course to gross $13.3 million from 3,800 locations in its sixth weekend for a domestic tally of $536.3 million and $1.21 billion globally. This week, the blockbuster shattered another record when overtaking Minions to become the fourth biggest animated film of all time and the biggest Universal animation of all time, not adjusted for inflation.
New offering Book Club: The Next Chapter is looking a third-place finish with a muted $7 million from 3,500 theaters domestically, well behind the $13.6 million opening of the first Book Club in 2018. From Focus Features, the film’s star-studded ensemble cast is once again led by Candice Bergen, Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton and Mary Steenburgen.
Book Club 2 is holding out hope that it will come in higher thanks to Mother’s Day.
But complicating factors include a so-so B CinemaScore from audiences (the first pic earned an A-) and unfavorable reviews. Also, in the age of streaming, older females remain a difficult demo to win over.
Among Friday ticket buyers for Book Club 2, 73 percent were female, while 67 percent were 47 and older, including nearly 50 percent over the age of 55.
The news is notably worse for the weekend’s other new player, Hypnotic. Directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring Ben Affleck, the sci-fi action-thriller may earn just $2.6 million from 2,118 theaters for a fifth-place finish (Affleck has double duty this weekend, between Hypnotic and his directorial effort Air, which hits Prime Video after an exclusive run in theaters).
Hypnotic found itself stranded when distribution and production company Solstice Entertainment went out of business. Indie distributor Ketchum stepped up and is releasing the film domestically in tandem with Relativity. The pic also stars Alice Barga, J. S. Pardo, Hala Finley and Dayo Okeniyi.
Estimates will be updated Sunday morning.
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