A few months ago, if you were told that Marvel was coming out with a film that featured five unlikely and unique super heroes which included a talking raccoon and a talking tree with a limited thee word vocabulary, you may have said this film will be Marvel’s 2014 box office disaster joining the ranks of Disney’s 2013 Lone Ranger disappointment..
Think again people, we are talking about Marvel Studios here!
The James Gunn directed, “Guardians of the Galaxy” set an all time record for an U.S. August debut earning $94M and a global opening of $160.4M.
The Marvel and Disney film did far more business than expected, receiving glowing reviews for its originality and an A CinemaScore from audiences. The movie, launching only the second in-house Marvel franchise after the Avengers series, received the widest release ever for an August title (4,080 theaters), and easily surpassed the debut of previous August record-holder, The Bourne Ultimatum ($69.3 million).
Guardians secured the best showing of the year so far for an original property, as well as coming in ahead of high-profile summer franchise installments Godzilla ($93.2 million), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($91.6 million) and X-Men: Days of Future Past ($90.8 million). And it’s the third best debut of the year so far after Age of Extinction ($100 million) and fellow Marvel movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($95 million).
Heading into the weekend, Guardians was projected to gross only $65 million to $70 million in its domestic debut. Males made up the majority of the audience (56 percent), and especially older teens and young adult men, a coveted demo that is getting harder and harder for Hollywood to please (46 percent of the audience was between the ages of 17 and 34). Fittingly, Imax theaters delivered $17 million globally, an August best.
Guardians wasn’t a cheap proposition and cost $170 million to produce. That doesn’t include Disney and Marvel’s pricey and well-waged marketing campaign.
source: Hollywood Reporter