Chris Pratt attends the premiere of 'Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3' in Los Angeles, California, US, April 27, 2023. Photo: Reuters
It was a Chris Pratt versus Chris Pratt showdown at the box office this weekend as Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 finally dethroned The Super Mario Bros. Movie in a promising lead-up to this year’s summer movie season.
Disney and Marvel Studios’ Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 opened in first place at the US box office with US$114mil (RM505.8mil), according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore. After a four-week streak at No. 1, The Super Mario Bros. Movie came in second, adding US$18.6mil (RM82.5mil) for a North American cumulative of US$518.1mil (RM2.29bil).
The latest Guardians instalment matched early box-office projections, which anticipated that the film would make about US$110mil (RM488mil) in the United States and Canada. Internationally, the superhero flick amassed US$168mil (RM745.4mil) for a global cumulative of US$282mil (RM1.25bil), according to studio estimates.
Directed by new co-head of DC Studios James Gunn, Marvel’s latest offering reunites Star-Lord (Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Groot (Vin Diesel) and Rocket the raccoon (Bradley Cooper) for one last chaotic adventure through outer space.
The third and final Guardians movie notched the second biggest domestic opening of the franchise. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 launched at US$145mil exactly six years ago; the original Guardians Of The Galaxy bowed at US$94mil in 2014.
The only other Marvel movie to launch this year so far, Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, debuted at US$104mil in February.
Unlike Quantumania, however, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 fared well with critics, earning an 81% fresh rating on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. The blockbuster also received an A-grade from audiences polled by CinemaScore.
“Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 has its own appreciable mean streak, to be sure, but that streak is still largely subordinated to sentimental franchise-finale demands,” writes LA Times film critic Justin Chang in his review.
“That may be a compromise, but it’s not a failure. For all the visual weirdness and misfit irreverence he pumped into these stories, Gunn’s obvious love for these characters has been the trilogy’s consistent and undeniable saving grace. And he notably doesn’t sell out that love as he brings those characters all to a conclusion, or at least a mid-franchise inflection point, that carries an ache of bittersweet feeling.” – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
