At some point over the last several years, the idea of making a movie out of the little known comic, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (click the link to read our review) was discussed over at Marvel and I’m sure the powers that be were skeptical at best. How would a superhero movie be successful if it didn’t feature any known superheroes? Well, the formula is pretty simple; start by choosing a talented director, then choose a future superstar as your lead and then envelop the film in the Marvel hype machine and you’ll have close to $100 million at the weekend box office. On Thursday night alone, the film took in $11 million, which is the highest grossing Thursday opening of the year, besting THE $8 million TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION took in. And as you recall, Transformers is the highest grossing film of the year so far. But depending on how Saturday and Sunday numbers shake out, that honor might go to GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY as the film could flirt with a $100 million opening. And maybe the greatest thing about the film’s success is that it actually deserves it. It was a blast at the box office and the only thing I don’t like is that we have to wait until the summer of 2017 to get the sequel.
Next week sees the release of the Michael Bay produced TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES. I’m not sure what to think about this film since as a kid of the 90’s, the trailer looks awful. But maybe kids today will warm up to the four turtles the way we did as kids 20 years ago. We also get the tornado adventure INTO THE STORM, the continuing saga of the Step Up crew in STEP UP: ALL IN and the limited release of Daniel Radcliffe’s romantic comedy WHAT IF. But with the insanely good word of mouth coming from GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, I’d bet the film will easily repeat as the #1 film of the weekend.
1.Guardians of the Galaxy $94m
2. Lucy $18.3m
3. Get on Up $14m
4. Hercules $10.7m
5. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes $8.7m
6. Planes: Fire and Rescue $6.4m
7. The Purge: Anarchy $5.5m
8. Sex Tape $3.5m
9. And So It Goes $3.4m
10. A Most Wanted Man $3.3m
(Deadline)