The monumental box office success of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is something writer-director James Gunn calls “great,” but isn’t truly what is “meaningful” to him about the film’s impact.
Now that Vol. 3 has been in theaters for over six weekends, the latest numbers have come in, and it turns out the film has amassed a gross of over $800 million worldwide. That makes Guardians one of the most consistent franchises with Marvel, in terms of high box-office returns. Vol. 1 made over $700 million at the box office while Vol. 2 also made it north of the $800 million mark, according to Box Office Mojo.
According to film reporter Scott Mendelson on Twitter, Vol. 3 could have surpassed $900 million if it was released under the same circumstances as in 2017. As he explained, “[Guardians Vol. 3] actually earned more than Guardians and Guardians 2 sans-Russia ($38M for Guardians and 27M for Guardians 2) and in current overseas exchange rates.”
As for Gunn, he said the truly rewarding part about Vol. 3 has not been the box office dollars, but the way the film has emotionally impacted its viewers.
To put Vol. 3’s box office return in perspective, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania — Marvel’s other tentpole film from earlier this year — has only managed to crack more than $400 million worldwide. From a global perspective, that means Quantumania has not even reached the benchmark of its two previous movies in the franchise.
Hopefully, Gunn can translate his Marvel box office success over to DC as the rival studio’s new co-CEO and writer-director of the upcoming Superman: Legacy. In my view, Gunn has not made a bad movie in his entire career so far, so I will be checking out his DC projects whether they swoon movie-goers en masse or not.