Disney/Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 landed on tracking today before its summer season launch date of Friday, May 5 and it’s looking like a $130M domestic start.
That’s lower than the $146.5M stateside opening of Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, which also kicked off summer in 2017, and distribution sources specify that the campaign for GOTG3 hasn’t really fired up to its full potential yet. Hence, there’s nothing to worry about. The highest domestic opening for a Marvel Studios movie post-pandemic belongs to Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home ($260.1M). After that, it’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which started summer last year with $187.4M.
That said, GOTG3 was tracking lower in first choice compared to GOTG2, though strong among the under 25 sect.
Gunn and cast in interviews have mentioned that the threequel will be darker, focusing on the origin story of Rocket Racoon (Bradley Cooper). There’s also a different Gamora (Zoe Saldana) from another timeline; this version never fell in love with Peter Quill (Chris Pratt). In addition, there’s a potentially calmer Nebula (Karen Gillan), thanks to daddy Thanos being completely gone. The bad guy is the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), who was responsible for experimenting on Rocket.
On Wednesday, May 3, there’s an Imax only marathon of all three GOTG movies. Tickets are on sale.
Through two movies, the GOTG franchise has grossed over $1.6 billion worldwide. The first GOTG in 2014 made $333M domestic, $773.3M WW. GOTG Vol 2 did $389.8M domestic, $863.7M WW.