Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Tracking for $250 Million Global Opening

The summer moviegoing season officially begins when Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 presses play on May 5th. Early tracking had the threequel, which will send off James Gunn and this team of Guardians from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, opening lower than 2017's Vol. 2 with a projected opening weekend between $125 million—$130 million. Now Deadline projects that Disney and Marvel's Vol. 3 looks to dethrone Universal and Illumination's animated Super Mario Bros. Movie for the box office high score with $110 million domestically and another $140 million internationally for a global opening weekend totaling $250 million.

While lower than the $146.5 million that Vol. 2 raked in over the same May weekend in 2017, the expected $100 million-plus opening would be the sixth for Marvel Studios since the start of the pandemic following Spider-Man: No Way Home ($260 million), Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($187 million), Thor: Love and Thunder ($144 million), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ($181 million), and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ($106 million).

The first reviews are mostly positive: Vol. 3 scored a 78% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, a drop from the 2014 film (92%) and its 2017 sequel (85%). According to Deadline, sluggish advance tickets have picked up since going live on April 3rd, with pre-sales currently tracking at an estimated $26 million — less than half the $60 million that the multiversal Doctor Strange 2 conjured up by this same point last May.

"This is the end for us, the last time people will see this team of Guardians," Gunn confirmed in an interview last year. "It's big; it's so, so big and dark, and different from what people might be expecting it to be." On completing his trilogy, Gunn added, "I just want to be true to the characters, the story and give people the wrap-up that they deserve for the story. That's always a little bit scary; I'm doing my best."

The official logline: "In 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. 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."

Starring Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, featuring Vin Diesel as Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, and Sean Gunn as Kraglin, Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary, Will Poulter as Adam Warlock, and Maria Bakalova as Cosmo, Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 opens only in theaters May 5th.