“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” Delivers Year’s No. 2 Opening

By Kip Mooney • On • In Weekend Box Office Report Weekend Box Office Report 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT

May 5-7, 2017

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

 

TOP 5

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2  $145.0 million
The Fate of the Furious $8.5 million
The Boss Baby $6.1 million
How to Be a Latin Lover $5.2 million
Beauty and the Beast  $4.9 million

 

With the summer movie season officially underway, we begin as always with a Marvel movie. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the sequel to the second-biggest movie of 2014, debuted far and away in first place with an estimated $145 million. That's the second-biggest opening of the year, behind Beauty and the Beast. It's also about $50 million higher than the original film opened with three years ago. That's obviously a strong opening, and it's likely to stick for the whole summer, barring some major surprises. With not much in the way of competition for the rest of the month, it should outgross the original by Memorial Day.

No other wide releases dared challenge Peter Quill and his band of interstellar misfits. The Fate of the Furious fell again, earning only $8.5 million, but sending the eighth installment past the $200 million mark. The Boss Baby also took a smaller hit, as it passed $150 million.

How to Be a Latin Lover still courted both English- and Spanish-speaking audiences, adding a few more screens and taking in around $20 million. That means it's going to flame out quicker than his 2013 phenomenon Instructions Not Included. Still, he's well on his way to being an international comedy star. Finally, Beauty and the Beast added nearly $5 million more to top last year's biggest second-biggest movie Finding Dory. Given how many theaters it's playing in, it's likely to stay until the end of the month, which will almost certainly mean it will become the eighth movie to gross half a billion dollars domestically.

Next week: 

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: The Lovers, the dark romantic comedy starring Debra Winger and Tracy Letts. The film averaged $17,603 on four screens.
  • Once again, audiences weren't interested in a movie on controversial figure Julian Assange. Risk, directed by Academy Award-winner Laura Poitras, only averaged $2,211, despite showing on 32 screens.
  • The restoration of Stalker played on only one screen, but it took in $19,785 all on its own.

Next week:

Guy Ritchie's King Arthur reboot takes on Snatched, the Amy Schumer-Goldie Hawn action comedy. Neither one will cut into Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2's reign. That sequel will stay No. 1 with about $75 million.

 

 

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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