The intergalactic misfits of Guardians of the Galaxy are the summer’s box-office superheroes.
Marvel’s cosmic romp topped the US Labour Day box office with a three-day take of $22 million (Dh80.7 million) — its third time in first place since its release five weeks ago, according to studio estimates on Monday. With North American ticket sales of more than $280 million so far, Guardians is also the summer’s — and the year’s — top-grossing film to date in the US.
Still, summer box-office totals are down almost 15 per cent from last year, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak.
“This is the lowest summer since 2006 in terms of revenue,” he said. “Before Guardians, we were sitting on a 20 per cent deficit compared to last year.”
Transformers: Age of Extinction, which opened in late June, also boosted the summer box office with $1 billion in global ticket sales. Maleficent was another hit, bringing in more than $230 million in the US.
“This was never expected to be a record-breaking summer,” Dergarabedian said, “but it maybe came in under expectations.”
The World Cup may have distracted moviegoers, he said. Also, the death of Paul Walker caused the seventh instalment of Fast & Furious — which might have added around $200 million to the summer box office — to be postponed until next year.
Last summer broke box-office records with the success of Iron Man 3, Star Trek, The Heat and Despicable Me 2. Next summer is expected to make history again with hotly anticipated releases including Star Wars, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Pixar’s Inside Out.
“Summer of 2014 is a transitional summer between two record-breaking years,” Dergarabedian said.
The top movies over the US holiday were the same as the previous weekend. Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles followed Guardians with $15.7 million, while Warner Bros’ young-adult drama, If I Stay took third place with $11.6 million.
“We went out with a whimper,” Dergarabedian said. “We wound up a very exasperating summer on a very quiet note.”
