Guardians of the Galaxy 3's Box Office Gross in its Seventh Weekend

Guardians of the Galaxy 3, showing still better legs than before late in its run, suffered a mere 31 percent week-on-week drop in the last (June 9-June 15) Friday-to-Thursday period, followed by a reasonably robust Memorial Day weekend gross (in the three-day period seeing a mere 27 percent drop from what it did in the prior Friday-to-Sunday, while adding an extra $1 million on Monday). The result is that its domestic box office gross now stands at $346 million.

The holds are impressive--but all the same, they are from a fairly low level. The result is that where I had guessed at a final gross of $330 million after the second weekend the film will end up, all things considered, just a little higher (in the vicinity of $350-$360 million). Meanwhile the film, if opening bigger internationally, continues to fade faster elsewhere. The result is that I still expect that in even the best-case scenario the movie will not get much beyond $850 million, $900 million (which both preceding Guardians of the Galaxy movies blew past), and even the $875 million I suggested as the likely top of the range when offering the $330 million figure, out of reach.

Still, if the movie will end up the lowest grosser of the trilogy domestically, internationally and globally, and by a not insignificant margin, it is a considerable improvement over how the last three Marvel films did--and, admittedly helped by the weakness of the performances we are generally seeing this year (in the wake of how films like The Flash are performing, and Indiana Jones 5 seems likely to perform) I think it has a good shot of making Deadline's list of the top ten most profitable movies of 2023 in another reminder that the Marvel Cinematic Universe, if not at its peak, and facing considerable headwinds (with just Captain Marvel 2 coming out between now and next summer, and everything else after subject to delay), still has some life in it as the industry, press included, grade success on an increasingly generous curve.