Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 launched the summer blockbuster season with a healthy $145 million debut. While it's an impressive total, it's still not the highest start of 2017 so far.
That honor remains with the Beauty and the Beast remake and its $174 million opening weekend back in March. But Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 did topple its predecessor's $94 million debut from August of 2014. That's more than a 50% increase, better than most of the Marvel franchise sequels. Iron Man 2 only jumped about 30% from Iron Man's starting weekend, while Captain America: Winter Soldier improved just under 50% from Captain America: The First Avenger. Avenger's Age of Ultron ended up opening lower than the first Avenger's movie.
The first Guardians movie tapped out at around $330 million in domestic sales, and it's easy to see where the sequel will be able to outstrip that number. But will it earn enough to rank as one of the top three movies of the year? The Beauty and the Beast remake has already staked a solid claim with its almost $500 million domestic total, and the next Star Wars movie will most certainly follow The Force Awakens' push past $500+ million to be the year's top earner. But there are other big names on the horizon, including Spider-Man: Homecoming, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and the highly anticipated The Dark Tower, all of which are set to give Guardians Vol 2 a run for its money.
The Fate of the Furious finally pushed past $200 million this weekend, adding $8 million to its $207 million total. While the movie has done extremely well, it will have to settle for second place behind the previous franchise entry, Furious 7. The Fate of the Furious is tapping out in the low $200 million domestic and around $1.2 billion world-wide, well behind Furious 7's $353 million domestic and $1.5 billion global sales.
The Beauty and the Beast remake pushed its way back into the top five this weekend. Now in its 8th weekend in the top ten, the powerhouse added another $5 million to its $487 million domestic total, meaning it may yet hit $500 million. If it does, it will be one of only eight movies to ever hit that mark. It surpassed Finding Dory's $486 million domestic total to become the highest grossing Disney movie (excluding Dinsey-owned outside franchises like Star Wars and Marvel).
For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:
