‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ opens with $94M big opening box office weekend
The early estimates for Guardians of the Galaxy were $50-60 million, then $60 million or more and then raised again to $75 million. Marvel Studios won even bigger than expected with a $94 U.S. opening weekend, crushing the August record.
The previous best opening in August was the $69.2 million debut of 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum. It also makes Guardians the third largest opening of 2014, coming behind the $95 million inauguration of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the $100 million launch of Transformers: Age of Extinction.
Overseas, Guardians also dazzled, debuting to $66.4 million in 42 markets for a global opening of $160.4 million. It’s only playing in 50 percent of the foreign marketplace, and saw big numbers in Russia ($13 million), the U.K. ($10.8 million), Mexico ($6.5 million) and Brazil ($5.4 million).
“Lucy” dropped a bit to manage second place at this weekend’s box office
“This is a brand that transcends any character within their universe,” Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak said. “The mere mention of the name Marvel is enough to get people into the movie theater. That’s somewhat rare. Pixar obviously has a similar cachet, but for Marvel to have four films this year open with over $90 million is amazing. It’s unprecedented success.”
Lucy fell out of the top spot, earning $18.2 million for a pleasing domestic total of $79.6 million. The other big new film this week was Got On Up, the James Brown biopic starring Chadwick Boseman, which came in third at $14 million.
Paramount and MGM’s Hercules continued to lag behind Lucy, falling to No. 4 in its week with $10.7 million for a domestic total of $52.3 million. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes rounded out the top five with $8.7 million, raising the films domestic total to $189.3 million.
The full list is below.
Check out the full movie review for Guardians of the Galaxy HERE
To read about Lucy HERE or Get On Up HERE
1. “Guardians of the Galaxy,” $94 million.
2. “Lucy,” $18.3 million.
3. “Get on Up,” $14 million.
4. “Hercules,” $10.7 million.
5. “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” $8.7 million.
6. “Planes: Fire & Rescue,” $6.4 million.
7. “The Purge: Anarchy,” $5.5 million.
8. “Sex Tape,” $3.5 million.
9. “And So It Goes,” $3.3 million.
10. “A Most Wanted Man,” $3.3 million.
