Guardians of the Galaxy has been the hit of the summer, there’s no question about it, but everyone still seems to consider it as the red-headed stepchild of The Avengers.
The Avengers is still one of the biggest grossing films of all time, but Guardians of the Galaxy has finally broken one of The Avengers box-office records: Guardians of the Galaxy has been the number one movie for more weekends now than Joss Whedon’s mega-film was able to dominate.
According to Deadline, Guardians of the Galaxy is about to win its sixth weekend as the highest grossing film at the box office. It’s not a consecutive run. There was that falter in its second week when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles took the top spot, but the only other two Marvel films to come close to being the number one film for that long were Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Avengers which were both the top movie for just three weekends.
On Guardians of the Galaxy’s opening weekend – August 1st through 3rd – the Marvel film raked in over $94.3 million. In its second week there was that aforementioned momentary slip to the Michael Bay’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles before the film retook the top position. However, even though Guardians of the Galaxy is inching closer to a $300 million domestic take, it’s still made less than half of what The Avengers did ($624 million). So how does it make sense that Guardians of the Galaxy is number one longer than The Avengers?
The answer is a weaker slate of competing films.
Between being better received than expected, and coming in at the tail end of the summer season, Guardians of the Galaxy has been able to blow all its competitors out of the water. According to Comic Book.com , Guardians of the Galaxy is now the highest grossing Marvel that doesn’t have Iron Man in it. The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Iron Man, and Iron Man 2 are all ahead of Guardians of the Galaxy in total gross respectively.
Guardians of the Galaxy was a big gamble for Marvel. They took a group of intergalactic superheroes that most moviegoers outside of comics knew little about, and made them household names. If Guardians of the Galaxy hadn’t worked, there would really be a question as to whether or not the new Inhumans franchise would even be attempted. Doctor Strange might have even been put on the back burner, as he’s just not that well-known to the average popcorn lover.
Guardians of the Galaxy may have broken The Avengers record for most weekends at number one, but it did a lot more than that – it opened the door to many more superhero movies to come.
image via Red Carpet Refs