Once the dust completely settles on the first half of the summer blockbuster movie season, you may be surprised to learn that the highest grossing superhero movie thus far was actually released in April. That’s right, after all the hype that surrounded The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and X-Men: Days Of Future Past, both of these films are currently struggling to cross the $200 million mark in the US. Meanwhile, Captain America: The Winter Soldier has not only grossed more than $250 million domestically, but it’s also the highest grossing movie of the year worldwide ($700 million). And while The Amazing Spider-Man 2 may soon overtake Captain America in the latter category, this point remains: no other franchise can compete with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At least, not this year.
Marvel made the risky move of releasing Captain America in the spring and it has paid off wonderfully for them. Now, the studio faces their toughest challenge yet with Guardians Of The Galaxy. Can Marvel strike gold yet again with a superhero team that’s largely unknown to the general public? Considering the amount of marketing they have done for this movie so far, they certainly seem to think so.
Yesterday, Marvel released a poster that gave us a glimpse of Rocket and Groot, the two animated characters in the film. Today, we get a closer look at Gamora, a trained assassin played by Zoe Saldana. Gamora is an alien orphan who was trained to be Thanos’s personal assassin and now hopes to find redemption for her past crimes. She makes up one-fifth of the Guardians, which includes the aforementioned Rocket and Groot as well as Star-Lord and Drax the Destroyer.
I’ve actually been looking forward to Guardians Of The Galaxy because I don’t know these characters very well. Seriously, if the box office has told us anything this year, it’s that America is getting a little tired of Spider-Man and the X-Men. With an interesting director in James Gunn and an eclectic cast that includes Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, John C. Reilly, and Benicio Del Toro, Guardians Of The Galaxy could be the breath of fresh air that the superhero genre so desperately needs right now.
You can expect to see more character posters from the film within the next few days, but you’re gonna have to wait at least two months before this bad boy finally comes out in theaters. Guardians Of The Galaxy gets released nationwide on August 1st.
