Despite the fact Spider-Man: No Way Home was initially credited with saving the post-pandemic box office, a couple of commercial disappointments in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and Shazam! Fury of the Gods has seen talk of "superhero fatigue" rear its ugly head in 2023.
The genre's detractors have used that for years to try and will these movies to go the same way as the Western, and there were those quick to write off Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as a flop even after a solid $110 million opening weekend. Well, the threequel has now exceeded expectations (again) with a $118.4 million debut in North America amid overwhelmingly positive buzz from moviegoers.
A fantastic Saturday to Sunday hold helped Vol. 3 surpass $114 million estimates, and there's good news overseas as well.
The movie opened at #1 everywhere it was available, giving it a current global cume of $289.3 million. In China, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 definitely performed better than expected with $28.1 million. While Vol. 2 opened in the Middle Kingdom with $49 million, Hollywood blockbusters no longer make the impact there they once did, so this is, comparatively, a massive debut.
While a $118 million opening may seem low compared to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness last May (that scored $187 million), the difference here is that it was coming off the back of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
We expect Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 to have major legs in the weeks ahead, though it will soon face stiff competition from Fast X, The Little Mermaid, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
"As heart-wrenching as it is hilarious," we said in our review earlier this week, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is James Gunn’s masterstroke and a showcase for both his filmmaking talent and a cast that makes everything about this movie simply awesome. An absolute triumph."
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now playing in theaters.