James Gunn Says No Official Date for Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 Home Release Yet
guGuardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 has earned over $780 million at the global box office so far, almost $10 million more than the first Guardians of the Galaxy earned during its entire theatrical run. As such, the filmmaker said in a post to social media network Bluesky, there is no definite timeline for a home entertainment release yet. The movie opened at $118 million domestically, and has continued to perform well in spite of a competitive May and early June release schedule that has included Fast X and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. With over half its money coming from the international market, the movie has already passed recent Marvel releases like Thor: Love and Thunder ($760 million lifetime gross) and Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania ($463 million).
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 has a chance of becoming the franchise's highest-grossing installment, currently lagging behind Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 by about $80 million. Guardians of the Galaxy earned $773 million in its 2014 theatrical run.
"There is not," Gunn told a fan when asked if he could reveal a VOD (video-on-demand) release date timetable. "We've been doing so well in theaters week after week it might be a little bit."
You can see Gunn's comment in context below.
Gunn, who recently took over as the co-CEO of DC Studios with producer Peter Safran, is one of only a handful of A-list directors who regularly interacts with fans on social media for anything that isn't part of a studio-mandated promotional window. While he has been a regular presence on Twitter for years, recently he has also established a presence on alternative platforms like Mastodon and now Bluesky.
Theatrical and home entertainment release windows have been unpredictable recently, as studios and exhibitors struggle to figure out a new normal. Theatrical exclusivity windows had already been shrinking prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and once March 2020 rolled around, many big films had either day-and-date (same day as theaters) digital releases, or at least very short exclusivity windows that saw movies head to streaming as soon as two to four weeks after they opened. Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania became the first Marvel release in a while that did not come to Disney+ before the next Marvel movie (in this case, Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3) was in theaters. Of course, that was already a fairly small window, with Quantumania releasing in mid-February, less than three months after Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3's release. Marvel's next installment, The Marvels, is due out in November.
You can see the film's official synopsis below.
In Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 our beloved band of misfits are settling into life on Knowhere. But it isn't long before their lives are upended by the echoes of Rocket's turbulent past," the synopsis reads. "Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him on a dangerous mission to save Rocket's life-a mission that, if not completed successfully, could quite possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.
Guardians of the Galaxy newcomers include Will Poulter as Adam Warlock, Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary, The Suicide Squad's Daniela Melchior, Superstore alum Nico Santos, and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm's Maria Bakalova as Cosmo the Spacedog. The movie will also feature the return of Chris Pratt (Peter Quill/Star-Lord), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Dave Bautista (Drax), Zoe Saldaña (Gamora), Sean Gunn (Kraglin/on-set Rocket), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Bradley Cooper (Rocket), and Vin Diesel (Groot).
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 is in theaters now.