Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Weekend Box Office: Crank Up the Volume

The 2017 summer blockbuster season officially kicked off this weekend with a Marvel sequel that dominated the box office. If Warner Bros. and Fox think their respective ‘King Arthur’ and ‘Snatched’ stand a chance of taking the top spot next weekend, they’re out of their freakin’ minds.

In 2014, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy‘ was the riskiest entry to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Nobody knew how the ensemble space opera (including talking raccoon and tree characters) would be accepted by audiences who fueled Marvel’s somewhat grounded-in-reality movies – but viewers (myself included) loved it! It opened to an impressive $94.3 million. This weekend, the fans turned out in droves to push ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2‘ to the top of the charts once again with a $145 million debut. Of the 15 MCU titles, this is the fifth-highest debut. Thanks to a few solid weeks at the foreign box office (where it made $282.6 million), ‘Vol. 2’ already has $427.6 million under its belt – and it’s just getting started.

The rush to see the new ‘Guardians’ caused ‘The Fate of the Furious‘ to take a hard hit in attendance. In its fourth week, the eighth installment in the ‘Furious’ series fell 57% and landed in second place with $8.5 million. The film’s domestic total is at $207.1 million, which is down considerably from where ‘Furious 7‘ was at this point ($320 million). However, its international box office is through the roof. ‘Furious 7’ bowed with $1.16 billion overseas. To date, ‘Fate of the Furious’ has grossed $951.2 million internationally and shows no signs of slowing down.

DreamWorks’ ‘The Boss Baby‘ didn’t appear to have much appeal prior to its release, but the fact that it just finished its sixth week in third place says otherwise. The week-to-week drops in attendance have been light, showing strong holdover. This weekend resulted in $6.1 million, bringing its domestic total up to $156.7 million. With $278.2 million in the international bank, it has an impressive $434.9 million worldwide, which is great for a poorly marketed kids’ movie.

Last week’s surprise #2 movie ‘How to Be a Latin Lover‘ took a hard blow this weekend. Its 57% drop and $5.2 million total knocked it down to the #4 spot. Budgeted at $10 million but having earned $20.6 million after ten days, it’s already a financial hit. The numbers should jump considerably when it starts its impending international rollout.

Eight-week-old ‘Beauty and the Beast‘ rounded out the Top 5 with $4.9 million. This brings its domestic draw to $487.5 million. Combined with a $698.1 million foreign gross, the live-action remake is up to $1.18 billion worldwide.

The limited release of ‘3 Generations‘ yielded so-so results from six screens. The controversial Weinstein drama pulled $20,118 and a mild per-screen average of $3,353.

Top 10:

1. ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ (Buena Vista) – $145,049,000

2. ‘The Fate of the Furious’ (Universal) – $8,528,965

3. ‘The Boss Baby’ (Fox) – $6,175,000

4. ‘How to Be a Latin Lover’ (Pantelion) – $5,250,000

5. ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (Buena Vista) – $4,943,000

6. ‘The Circle’ (STX) – $4,020,000

7. ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ (GRT India) – $3,242,532

8. ‘Gifted’ (Fox Searchlight) – $2,055,000

9. ‘Going in Style’ (Warner Bros.) – $1,900,000

10. ‘Smurfs: The Lost Village’ (Sony) – $1,820,000

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