The first box-office projections for Marvel Studios and James Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” are in and the new MCU entry is on track for an opening weekend of at least $125-130 million.
That number would be lower than the $146.5 million opening of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” in May 2017, but well above the $94.3 million debut of the first one. It wouldn’t be the year’s biggest opening weekend of 2023 either as “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” at $146.3 million would retain that record.
However these are early projections several weeks before release, which differ from the standard projections closer to the film’s opening. Short-term marketing for the film has only just begun as TV spots, social media, reviews and more come into play.
As the movie is being sold as the last ‘Guardians’ movie, and thus could see some shock twists and character deaths, buzz could have a big impact on those numbers. The film is expected to be less ‘front loaded’ than other recent MCU entries.
That said, Box-Office Pro is reporting that initial pre-sales for the film are “currently trending below all post-Endgame releases other than Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”. In addition pre-release marketing impact is similarly “not generating the kind of social media imprint volume as any of 2023’s MCU releases”.
‘Guardians’ will benefit from a lack of competition as all of April’s releases are targeting modest openings, the biggest being “Evil Dead Rise” at a bit under $30 million.
Source: The Wrap
