Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hit an impressive milestone during its second-weekend theatrical run as it held on to the number one spot. The finale to James Gunn’s trilogy has managed to prove that while audiences may indeed are experiencing super-hero-fatigue that they will more selectively show up for other comic-book-based content. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 pulled in another $60.5 million over the weekend bringing its global ticket sales total to just over $528.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the #1 movie in the galaxy 2 weeks in a row💫
— Guardians of the Galaxy (@Guardians) May 13, 2023
Experience it in theaters now! Get tickets: https://t.co/eRzaW2H4R5 #GotGVol3 pic.twitter.com/oGRcI611EM
This was a significantly greater amount of sales than Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania which managed $475 million during the same time period. Ticket sales for that film plummeted shortly thereafter as word spread and it became highly criticized for having a lackluster story and low-quality special effects. Other superhero films that didn’t fare too well in the last twelve months were DC’s Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods and it seemed that the box-office dominance of comic-book movies was at an end but audiences have instead shown that content is key.
Not exactly the typical comic-book formula
As Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is still very much a MCU movie it still expectedly follows certain formulas that Marvel is known for but in its case, the main characters are not really superheroes but are mostly just aliens with different characteristics. The Chriss Pratt-led team of semi-reformed space pirates and bounty hunters found its own niche early on when critics panned it before it was even released, and then went on to set its own box office records. In an opposite turn of events from the recent Antman movie, word of mouth about the final outing seems to have inspired more momentum for ticket sales during this past week.
From ComicBookMovie:
“GOTG Vol. 3 came in slightly under domestic BO estimates when it debuted, but strong reviews (it’s holding at 82% on Rotten Tomatoes) and positive word of mouth have clearly benefitted the emotional trilogy-capper.”