Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3 gives Disney some light at the box office, with its second weekend takings offering cause for optimism. More here.
Everything is relative, that much is clear. But still, when the most recent Marvel film – Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania – found itself with a box office total of $475m, mild alarm bells must have been ringing at Disney. That’s the kind of number for a Marvel movie that plays to the current narrative of some kind of superhero fatigue, and it doesn’t help that the majority of recent Marvel Cinematic Universe outings have fallen just a little below expectations.
That said, there’s not a studio in town that wouldn’t have wanted each of those Marvel films and its respective takings on their docket. Yet it was becoming clear, against a backdrop of broader commercial pressures at the studio, that Disney could use a bigger hit.
On his way out of the Marvel door as he heads to Warner Bros and DC, James Gunn has delivered one. His trilogy-closer Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3 got off to a good start on its opening weekend, but Disney will be particularly buoyed that his film has held its audiences better than the majority of Marvel films.
On its second weekend in the US, the film added $60.5m to its takings, a drop of 48.9% from its opening. Using the last Ant-Man film as a yardstick, that fell by some 70%, and the more impressive returns for Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3 now see it with $213m banked in America, and $262m banked elsewhere. Its current total stands at $475m, and whilst Fast X is about to give it some heavy competition, there’s reason for some cautious optimism again.
Disney’s next Marvel film isn’t now due until November, when Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels steps up. Expect a meeting to be taking place somewhere within Marvel HQ about how it can get a fourth Guardians Of The Galaxy film moving, even without James Gunn involved.
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