James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 landed on tracking today, and Marvel Studios' next Phase 5 film looks set for a decent, if unspectacular, opening weekend at the domestic box office.
According to the latest estimates, the space-set adventure is expected to take in $130 million over the course of its opening weekend in North America.
This would be higher than the original GOTG's domestic debut, but quite a bit lower than Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which took in $146.5M back in 2017. However, Deadline does note that Vol. 3's "campaign hasn’t really fired up to its full potential yet."
Box office estimates have proven to be way off in the past, of course, so we obviously won't know for sure how GOTG Vol. 3 performs until it arrives in theaters three weeks from now.
"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 Saldana, 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 arrives in theaters on May 5, 2023.