After just 10 days on general release, James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has already outgrossed Marvel Studios' previous Phase 5 threequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Peyton Reed's divisive MCU adventure fell just shy of the $500 million mark with a lifetime gross $475.4M, but the intergalactic A-holes' final flight took in $60.5 million over the course of its second weekend in the U.S., bringing its global total to $528 million.
This makes Gunn's MCU swansong the highest-grossing comic book movie of the year, and with a 49% second-weekend drop, the Marvel Studios' strongest hold since 2018’s Black Panther and fourth best all-time for the MCU.
GOTG Vol. 3 came in slightly under domestic BO estimates when it debuted, but strong reviews (it's holding at 82% on Rotten Tomatoes) and positive word of mouth have clearly benefitted the emotional trilogy-capper.
The movie will soon face competition, however, with Fast X and Disney's The Little Mermaid right around the corner.
"In Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 our beloved band of misfits are settling into life on Knowhere. But it isn’t long before their lives are upended by the echoes of Rocket’s turbulent past." "Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him on a dangerous mission to save Rocket’s life—a mission that, if not completed successfully, could quite possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them."
Gunn writes and directs Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, featuring Vin Diesel as Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Sean Gunn, Chukwudi Iwuji, Will Poulter, and Maria Bakalova. Kevin Feige is the producer and Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Nikolas Korda, Simon Hatt, and Sara Smith serve as executive producers.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now in theaters.