“Guardians of Galaxy” has skyrocketed past the $200 million mark at the box office.
Disney-Marvel‘s intergalactic pic reached the epic milestone on Friday, in just 15 days, and will haul as much as $221 million by Sunday. After opening to a whopping $94.3 million (and crushing the record for August’s top debut), “Guardians” has been runner-up to “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” at the box office for the last two consecutive weekends.
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“Guardians” earned $7 million on Friday en route for a $23 million weekend.
The sci-fi adventure about a rag-tag group of heroes, which cost $170 million to produce, is a hit with both critics and audiences, earning 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.
It’s directed by James Gunn and stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper (the voice of Rocket) and Vin Diesel (the voice of Groot). A sequel has already been slated for July 28, 2017.
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“Guardians” is on its way to becoming the top summer film Stateside. Paramount’s “Transformers: Age of Extinction” is the current domestic leader with $243.1 million. The fourth pic in Michael Bay’s growing franchise is also the only movie to cross $1 billion worldwide this year, having earned most of its money (over 75%) overseas.
With $236.4 million, Disney’s “Maleficent” is the summer’s current no. 2 movie. Fox’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past” is third with $232.2 million, “Guardians” is fourth based on Friday figures with $204.5 million and Sony’s “The Amazing Spider-Man 2″ rounds out the top five with $202.8 million.
