Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is going strong in its fourth weekend with an additional $17.6 million, topping newcomers If I Stay, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, and When the Game Stands Tall.
The sci-fi action film scored the No. 1 spot for the second time and has become the summer’s top-grossing domestic release with $251.9 million ($489.5 million globally). Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista and Lee Pace, Guardians beat out Thor ($449 million) and Captain America: The First Avenger ($371 million).
“Being the biggest movie of the season is unbelievably gratifying and a confirmation of the kind of work that the Marvel team has put in,” said Dave Hollis, Walt Disney Studios’ executive vice president of theatrical distribution. He cited the film’s momentum and the fact that “it isn’t done with its run.”
If I Stay did manage to place in third with $16.4 million and an A minus CinemaScore, following yet another summer holdover Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which gathered $16.8 million.
“The movie cost $11 million, so this opening is fine for us,” said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution. “Tracking was a little bit stronger; tracking has been way off for the month of August. They had us at 20 [million dollars], so you get your expectations up a little bit. But we’re very pleased with the result.”
The teen tearjerker drama, starring Chloë Grace Moretz and Jamie Blackley, centers on a 17-year-old girl who loses her family in a car accident, which puts her in a coma. She must choose to live or die — fight to live for her boyfriend, or join her family in death.
Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, directed by Miller and Robert Rodriguez, scored a disappointing $6.5 million from 2,984 locations, much less than the first Sin City’s haul of $29.1 million.
“We weren’t prepared for this level of rejection by the public,” said Erik Lomis, The Weinstein Company’s head of theatrical distribution, about the blockbuster’s flop. “We thought the film would resonate more. It’s like the ice bucket challenge without the good cause.”
The Sin City sequel, which features Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, earned a B minus CinemaScore.
Another newcomer for the weekend was Sony Pictures’ inspirational high school football drama When the Game Stands Tall, placing No. 5 with $9 million from 2,673 locations. The film is based on the story of Northern California high school De La Salle’s 151-game winning streak, and what happened after the team finally lost.
Fox’s R-rated comedy Let’s Be Cops took fourth place with $11 million, while The Weinstein Company’s The Giver scored $6.7 million, out-performing Sin City, and landed in sixth place.
See what films made the top 10 list at the box office this weekend by clicking the pages below!
