“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” is off to a soaring start with its pre-domestic opening in 37 overseas markets, rolling in an opening weekend of $101.2 million.
When comparing the same suite of territories and against today’s currency exchange rates, the opening for “Vol. 2” is 57 percent bigger than that of the first “Guardians of the Galaxy” film released in Aug. 2014. It’s also 50 percent bigger than another Marvel Studios sequel, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” and 19 percent bigger than “Thor: The Dark World.”
Countries included in this first wave of releases include several major European markets, including the U.K., where “Vol. 2” had the second-biggest opening of 2017 with $15.5 million. The only 2017 film that did better in Britain was another Disney release, “Beauty and the Beast.” Other European countries include France, Italy, Spain, Austria and Germany.
The second biggest return for the film came from Australia, where Marvel took advantage of the national holiday Anzac Day to rack up $11.6 million. Other major markets that got releases this weekend include Hong Kong, Brazil and Mexico.
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” is currently projected to make around $150 million domestically next weekend, when it will also be released in Russia, Korea and China. The brass ring for this movie, however, is the $179 million grossed in this release slot last year by “Captain America: Civil War.” That film went on to gross $408 million domestically and $1.15 billion worldwide.
Once considered a big gamble, Marvel Studios and director James Gunn have turned Star-Lord and the rest of the Guardians into pop culture stars as big as Captain America and Iron Man, and with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 86 percent and strong word-of-mouth from early screenings, the sequel is expected to easily blow by the $773 million global cume set by its predecessor. The Guardians are set to appear in next year’s “Avengers: Infinity War,” with a “Vol. 3” announced by Gunn and Marvel Studios earlier this month.