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Box office hits and misses: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ puts the brakes on ‘Fate of the Furious’

Rick Marshall
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Image used with permission by copyright holder
It was no surprise that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ended the reign of The Fate of the Furious at the top of the box office, but the magnitude of the Marvel movie sequel’s premiere is still impressive.

Returning director James Gunn’s film earned an estimated $145 million in U.S. theaters over the course of its first weekend, giving it the second biggest premiere of the year after Beauty and the Beast ($174.7 million) and giving Disney the top two movie premieres of the year (and this is even before the premiere of Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi happens in December). The opening weekend for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was 54-percent higher than its predecessor’s $94.3 million premiere, giving it largest jump from the first film to the second in Marvel’s cinematic universe.

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On the review side, Vol. 2 is now the 10th Marvel movie to receive an “A” grade from audiences via CinemaScore, and the film currently has an 82-percent “Fresh” rating from professional critics on review aggregator RottenTomatoes.

Related
# Title Weekend U.S. Total Worldwide Total
1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 $145M $145M $427.6M
2. The Fate of the Furious $8.5M $207.1M $1.1B
3. The Boss Baby $6.1M $156.7M $434.9M
4. How to be a Latin Lover $5.2M $20.6M $20.6M
5. Beauty and the Beast $4.9M $487.5M $1.1B
6. The Circle $4M $15.7M $15.7M
7. Baahubali 2: The Conclusion $3.2M $16.1M $16.1M
8. Gifted $2M $19.2M $19.9M
9. Going in Style $1.9M $40.6M $70.3M
10. Smurfs: The Lost Village $1.8M $40.5M $171.2M

As for the rest of the movies that made it into the weekend’s top ten films, The Fate of the Furious continued its blockbuster run with a weekend that pushed it past $950 million internationally, and brought its worldwide total to $1.158 billion. Although it’s lagging a bit behind its predecessor Furious 7 in U.S. theaters, it’s making up for it internationally, and currently ranks as the 13th highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide, and the second highest-grossing movie of the year — and it’s rapidly closing the gap between itself and 2017 record-holder Beauty and the Beast ($1.185 billion).

Among the rest of the weekend’s top movies, Beauty and the Beast passed Minions and Captain America: Civil War on the all-time worldwide box-office rankings to move into 11th place, and isn’t showing any signs falling off quite yet.

This upcoming week’s biggest release is director Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, which casts Sons of Anarchy and Pacific Rim actor Charlie Hunnam as King Arthur in a retelling of the Arthurian legend. The film would likely do well if it wasn’t going up against a Marvel movie like Guardians of the Galaxy, so it’s difficult to predict how much the success of Guardians will hurt King Arthur. Also premiering this week is Amy Schumer’s latest comedy, Snatched, as well as the Simon Pegg comedy Absolutely Anything, which is notable for featuring the final role for deceased actor Robin Williams, who voices a dog in the film.

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Rick Marshall
Rick Marshall
Former Digital Trends Contributor
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
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