Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 Beating Avengers: Age Of Ultron In Advance Ticket Sales
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, due out on Friday, is on track to be one of Marvel's biggest hits ever. The movie, which has already made over $100 million overseas, is already tracking above Avengers: Age of Ultron in advanced ticket sales on Fandango, according to Deadline, putting the movie on track to bring an explosive start to the summer box office.
The film has been the number one ticket seller every day on Fandango since April 24, which, in addition to the strong overseas ticket sales, has led execs to believe it is tracking for an over $150 million debut. The movie passing Avengers: Age of Ultron's advanced ticket sales in an impressive feat, considering that it has the fourth best domestic opening of all time, falling behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Avengers, and another Chris Pratt vehicle, Jurassic World. Avengers: Age of Ultron opened with $191.3 million (and went on to become the seventh highest grossing film of all time), indicating that Guardians could hit somewhere in that range. The film also doesn't have much competition, with The Fate of the Furious topping the box office for the last three weeks but probably headed for at least second place with the newer high action franchise film taking its place on top. (Guardians' first real rivals will come on May 26, with the release of Baywatch and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.)
The first Guardians of the Galaxy debuted to $94.3 million, eventually propelling itself to a $331 million domestic haul on the strength of good reviews and word of mouth. The sequel has the recognition of the first film already pushing it forward, in addition to another rash of positive reviews and off the charts social media buzz. (According to Fandango research, the addition of Kurt Russell as Star-Lord's father also has a lot of people interested, with 62 percent of people surveyed saying his casting is making them more interested in seeing the sequel. Fans were also interested in the movie's focus on strong female heroines, something which should hopefully help DC's Wonder Woman later this summer.) Guardians has also received a significant marketing push, with a number of trailers, TV spots, and product tie-ins promoting the superhero flick.
"Its popularity has grown exponentially since the first Guardians of the Galaxy surprised audiences as a monster hit," Fandango Managing Editor Erik Davis told Deadline about the sequel. "The series' visual inventiveness, coupled with the addition of Baby Groot and another fantastic soundtrack in Vol. 2, is fueling even more excitement as Marvel Studios looks to kick off the summer movie season in a massive way."
The trend of superhero films dominating the box office isn't likely to go away anytime soon, but it should be interesting to see how Marvel, DC, and even Sony will look at the success of the Guardians of the Galaxy films and if they will try to bring in some familiar elements from the light hearted movies into their future properties. For now, though, see some comic book characters who should never, ever be on screen.