James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy passed The Lego Movie to become the second-biggest domestic release of the year last night, and in so doing, become the biggest U.S. box office hit of star Chris Pratt’s career.
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Exact numbers are not yet in, but projections are that the movie will have made around $1.5 million last night, on par with what it did Wednesday. That will be enough, by about $450,000, to push it past Lego and into the #2 spot for the year.
The Lego Movie cemented Pratt as a huge star, generating more than $100 million more than his previous top film, Wanted. Another comic book adaptation in which he had a smaller role, Wanted was previously the only movie in Pratt’s career to gross more than $100 million with a little over $134 million. Behind that would be Zero Dark Thirty with $96 million.
It’s widely expected that Guardians will surpass Captain America: The Winter Soldier‘s $259.8 million this weekend, which will make it the biggest domestic hit of 2014 so far. It’s already one of the year’s biggest overperformers; Box Office Mojo projected the movie to make just $180 million when they did their Summer Forecast back in late April.