2017 Box Office Gets a Boost Thanks to “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”

	Film	Weekend	Opening Weekend	Current Gross
	Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2	$146.5m	$146.5m	$146.5m
	The Fate of the Furious	$8.5m	$98.7m	$207.1m
	The Boss Baby	$5.9m	$50.1m	$156.5m
	How to Be a Latin Lover	$5.1m	$12.2m	$20.5m
	Beauty and the Beast	$5m	$174.7m	$487.7m

As predicted and after several weeks of a slump, this year’s box office received a much-needed boost from Disney and Marvel’s latest movie, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. While the film made $10 million less than we predicted and was not able to reach $150 million as last week’s expectations ventured, it still managed to make an impressive amount and become the second-highest opening of the year as well as one of the highest weekends of 2017 overall. Compared to last year, the weekend made almost $90 million more than the same weekend last year (likely because it was a week before Captain America: Civil War, which made more than $30 million more than Guardians 2 in its first weekend, came out).

This highly anticipated space opera sequel made a little more than $50 million over its predecessor, which made $94 million in its opening weekend in 2014. In the overall Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the movie landed as the fourth-highest opening, precisely where it was expected to land. It’s currently the fourteenth-highest film in the franchise, already above 2008’s The Incredible Hulk‘s entire domestic total. With a good future ahead of itself, and little competition from upcoming blockbusters (there’s certainly some, especially from films like Alien: Covenant, but not as much as there could be), Guardians 2 should rise through the MCU ranks quickly and in just one more weekend, will likely pass the likes of Captain America: The First Avenger, Ant-Man, and Thor to approach the MCU’s top 10.

The film also has the challenge to see whether or not it can cross $1 billion, the ultimate goal of any blockbuster these days. So far, four Marvel films have been able to do this: The Avengers, Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, and Iron Man 3. Guardians 2 is looking good to achieve this as it’s already $431.5 million worldwide after only three weekends of being in theaters internationally. Plus, the first Guardians film made $773 million worldwide, the highest-grossing MCU film to not reach $1 billion, and its sequel is already moving higher and faster.

Walt Disney Pictures

Speaking of $1 billion films, The Fate of the Furious came, as expected, behind Guardians 2. Dropping over 50 percent in its fourth week, the film brought its domestic total over $200 million and with only $2 million more, it will surpass 2011’s Fast Five to become the third-highest film in the franchise. Similar to Guardians 2, most of its success comes from the foreign box office. It’s now up to $1.16 billion worldwide, a little more than $20 million behind Beauty and the Beast, which came out about two months before Fate, as both films try to work their way into the top ten of all time.

The next film, The Boss Baby, made precisely as much as expected, but because of How to Be a Latin Lover‘s smaller intake than expected, Boss Baby landed in third rather than fourth. Overall, the film has now made $156 million domestically, $4 million shy of making it into DreamWorks Animation’s top 15, and is at $436.5 million worldwide. The film has been out for six weeks now without falling off the top five, which is a feat most films aren’t able to accomplish.

As mentioned, How to Be a Latin Lover dropped more than expected — specifically, it dropped over 50 percent and brought in a little over $5 million, rather than its expected $7 million. Total, the film is now at $20.5 million, which is smaller than every other blockbuster in its vicinity but for a smaller film, its performance is still impressive.

Finally, Beauty and the Beast was able to reclaim its spot on the top five, dropping only 25 percent in its eighth week in theaters and bringing in $5 million. Its domestic total is at $487.7 million, hurtling past every other Disney live-action remake, including The Jungle Book, Maleficent, Cinderella, and more. As it comes to its end in theaters, it’s made a total of $1.186 billion worldwide and is the eleventh-highest film in the world. From Disney’s perspective, people can bemoan the existence of the live-action remakes all they want, but these numbers don’t lie.

(Source: boxoffice.com, boxofficemojo.com. Figures represent numbers at time of writing, and may have changed.)

Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor