Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3The first weekend has come to an end, but the film didn’t exactly set records at the box office. The latest update to the Marvel Cinematic Universe made $118 million at the box office in its opening weekend, making it slightly more than other recent entries in the franchise, but still a far cry from the totals Marvel was aiming for.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which was released in 2017, made $146 million, putting it well ahead of its own sequel. Meanwhile other recent movies like last year’s Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness even surpassed the earlier Guardians film with an opening weekend of $186 million. 2023 remains a rocky (at least by its own standards) start for Marvel, but anyway Guardians 3 performed better Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniawhich only reached $106 million.
While the openings of these last two Marvel films have been tough, it’s the repeat viewing that Disney hasn’t been able to capture lately. Since Spider-Man: No Way Home as of late 2021, Marvel has failed to get another release to cross the $1 billion threshold. The worst offender of this was Quantumaniawhich ended its theatrical run at just $475 million. Guardians 3 however, has the best word-of-mouth of any recent MCU film, which Disney hopes will propel its second week stronger than any other recent Marvel film.