Box Office Report: ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Wins The Weekend, ‘If I Stay’ Slides In At No. 3

Yesterday, we reported that it was likely the teens would own the box office with the tearjerker flick If I Stay. That said, if there’s one thing we’ve learned from our failed prediction, it’s that we shouldn’t underestimate fans of Guardians of The Galaxy.

Coming in at No. 1 at the box office, according to Forbes, Guardians of The Galaxy is the biggest grossing film of the summer. A surprise to no one, the August release really came in and saved the summer from being a season full of blockbuster duds and gave us something to remember.

The action-packed space opera came in at No.1 despite trailing behind the new release If I Stay on Friday. At the end of the weekend, their audience prevailed and it earned $17.63 million in its fourth weekend. It’s still a huge feat as it has earned an estimated $251.88 million domestically since it hit the box office.

As for Chloe Moretz’ film If I Stay, perhaps once word got out on Friday that it wasn’t particularly good, audiences stayed away. It would make sense considering the influx of teen films, albeit this isn’t a dystopian film, although it is targeted at a similar demographic. The film slid in at No. 3 at $16.335 million. That opening is a big difference from The Fault in Our Stars starring young adult favorite Shailene Woodley. The latter film had a huge opener at $48 million.

Forbes suggests that perhaps the back to school rush kept teens away from the movies this weekend, which might have hurt the smaller release If I Stay. As it is, the film didn’t really spring for a big marketing campaign like The Fault in Our Stars. While Fault had a huge campaign with a social media incentive, If I Stay wasn’t as bold in its initial wave of publicity for the film.

As for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, the sequel to Sin City, flopped at the box office at No. 8 with $6.48 million. The Sin City epic had many problems to deal with following the first film. One of them was the death of star Brittany Murphy, and the other was funding for the film. Unfortunately, considering there were 9 years between both films, this one was a little too late.

Here’s the full box office line up:

No. 1 – Guardians of the Galaxy – $17,631,000
No. 2 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – $16,800,000
No. 3 – If I Stay – $16,355,000
No. 4 – Let’s Be Cops – $11,000,000
No. 5 – When the Game Stands Tall – $9,000,000
No. 6 – The Giver – $6,730,000
No. 7 – The Expendables 3 – $6,600,000
No. 8 – Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For – $6,477,000
No. 9 – The Hundred-Foot Journey – $5,562,000
No. 10 – Into The Storm – $3,800,000

[Image via Walt Disney]