Wow. Wow. Wow.
I thought I was being slightly aggressive with this weekend’s prediction on how much box office pull a talking raccoon would have on cinema-goers. Never would I have thought that I had grossly underestimated that pull.
Follow me after the jump for the galactically surprising numbers that Rocket Racoon, Groot and the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy raked in this weekend!
Executives of Marvel Entertainment and parent company, Disney, must be having a blast, partying this weekend. I don’t think ANYONE could have possibly expected that Guardians of the Galaxy would resonate this strongly with audiences.
How strongly, you ask? How about to the tune of a $94 million opening weekend tally! An absolutely mind-blowing number!
I mean sure, things were looking (cautiously) good a week or two ago, and a Guardians sequel got green-lit amidst expectations of a $60-65 million opening weekend, but the film has over delivered for sure. And reviews, across the board, have been absolutely fantastic! You can read the review by Biff Bam Pop’s very own, Glenn Walker, right here. Dude loved it!
We’ll have to have some sort of a discussion on this site, soon, as to how Guardians could possibly make this kind of cash because not only was it unforeseen – but it’s unprecedented for this particular weekend. I’ve got to think that genre comics, specifically sci-fi comics (all the rage right now) were a bell weather sign.
As expected Lucy, Get On Up and Hercules battled it out for second place with Lucy coming out on top. Of note, Hercules, in its second week of release has only managed to make $10.7 million – which has to be a bit of a disappointment for a film featuring The Rock. (From a comic book fan’s perspective, I can’t wait to see him in some oft-rumoured DC Comics role soon. Shazam! anyone?)
So, to recap, here were the predictions:
1) Guardians of the Galaxy – $85 million
2) Lucy – $15 million
3) Get On Up – $14 million
4) Hercules – $14 million
5) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – $10 million
And here’s how the weekend actually turned out:
1) Guardians of the Galaxy – $94 million
2) Lucy – $18.3 million
3) Get On Up – $14 million
4) Hercules – $10.7 million
5) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – $8.7 million
Next weekend sees a plethora of releases where there’s something for everyone including: the foodie-centric, The Hundred-Foot Journey, the Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield from The Hobbit trilogy) starring thriller, Into the Storm, the latest in the dance-themed series of films, Step Up All In and, uh, oh-oh, Ninja Turtles!
It’ll prove to be an interesting box-office weekend for sure. Can Guardians face the Storm? Will Turtle soup be on the Hundred-Foot menu?
Stick with BBP! next week for the predictions and the answers!
