By Ben Miller
It was a Chris Pratt-dominated weekend as the Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 easily won the weekend box office with around $114 million. It's certainly below the norm for other MCU films, but largely positive critical reviews (81% on Rotten Tomatoes) and an "A" CinemaScore should give the film legs compared to other recent Marvel films. The Super Mario Bros. Movie continues it's box office reign as the highest grossing film of 2023. The Nintendo adaptation is now sitting at 17th all-time in the domestic rankings and at $1.1 billion worldwide, sits at 25th all-time. By the way, fifty-one films have made over $1 billion and Pratt has been in six of them...
| Weekend Box Office (actuals) May 5th-7th 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended |
|
| WIDE (Over 800 Screens) | LIMITED / PLATFORM |
 GUARDIANS VOL. 3 |
 JOYLAND |
|
1 🔺 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 3 $118.4 *NEW* 4450 screens |
1 SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS (US) $78k (cum. $1.5) 122 screens |
|
2 THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE $18.5 (cum. $518) |
2 ★ SHOWING UP (US) $44k (cum. $642k) 102 screens |
|
3 EVIL DEAD RISE $5.8 (cum. $54.2) 3036 screens |
3 WILD LIFE [Doc] $41k (cum. $236k) 23 screens |
|
4 ★ ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET? $3.2 (cum. $12.5) 3343 screens |
4 BORN TO FLY (China) $36k (cum. $185k) 22 screens |
|
5 🔺 LOVE AGAIN $2.3 *NEW* 2703 screens |
5 ★ JOYLAND (Pakistan) $30k (cum. $185k) 34 screens |
|
6 JOHN WICK CHAPTER 4 $2.3 (cum. $180) 2481 screens |
6 ★ THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS (Italy) $15k (cum. $56k) 4 screens |
 LOVE AGAIN |
 CARMEN |
|
7 ★ DUNGEONS & DRAGONS $1.4 (cum. $90.8) 1751 screens |
7 🔺 CHILE 76 (Chile) $13k (cum. $35k) 2 screens |
|
8 ★ AIR $1.3 (cum. $50.2) 1632 screens |
8 ★🔺 RMN (Romania) $12k (cum. $23k) 41 screens |
|
9 THE COVENANT $1.2 (cum. $14.7) 1807 screens |
9 ★🔺 CARMEN $8k (cum. $39k) 19 screens |
|
10 SISU $1.1 (cum. $5.5) 1006 screens |
10 🔺 THE MELT GOES ON FOREVER [Doc] $7k *NEW* 1 screen |
|
11 🔺 BIG GEORGE FOREMAN... $824k *NEW* 3054 screens |
11 SICK OF MYSELF (Norway) $6k (cum. $72k) 12 screens |
|
there were only 11 movies in wide release... |
12 ★ OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN (France) $6k (cum. $49k) 9 screens |
|
|
13 32 SOUNDS [Doc] $4k (cum. $27k) 1 screen |
|
|
14 ★ LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING [Doc] $3k (cum. $119k) 8 screens |
|
|
15 ★ CINEMA SABAYA (Israel) $3k (cum. $64k) 3 screens |
Elsewhere, Evil Dead Rise continues it's solid counter-programming run, already matching the box office of the 2013 predecessor. The only other new wide-release film was the Priyanka Chopra-starring Love Again, which barely made over $2 million on 2,700 screens.
Even the limited/platform releases got out of the way of Marvel, with only two new releases in limited theaters, and they released in a total of three theaters. [Editor's Note: Unfortunately there's continued erosion of the audience for arthouse cinema with tiny under-promoted short runs in theaters. But IF you can find them near you, some of the options are excellent. DO NOT MISS JOYLAND.]
Next Weekend - Only two releases go wide next week with the animated film Rally Road Racers and the actress-heavy sequel Book Club: The Next Chapter. I would expect Guardians to hold on to the top spot for another week.
What did you watch this weekend? My Oscar completism has landed on 1983, so I took in Silkwood (Nathaniel's pick for best Streep performance), Testament (featuring an exceptional Jane Alexander lead role), and Educating Rita (one of Michael Caine's best). Also caught the snooze that was 1960's Sons and Lovers.