Guardians of the Galaxy Poised to Retake #1 at the U.S. Box Office This Weekend

With If I Stay underperforming somewhat and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For stumbling badly out of the gate and looking to make only half of its iniital opening-weekend projections, Guardians of the Galaxy looks on pace to take the #1 spot at the box office this weekend, Deadline reports.

Marvel's latest offering looks to generate between $17 and $18 million this weekend, while its next closest competition is a dead heat between Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and If I Stay, both on pace for between $15 and $16.5 million.

Obviously, a particularly good or bad day for any of those three films could shift positions for all three movies given how close they look to finish.

Rounding out the top five should be Let's Be Cops and When the Game Stands Tall, with Sin City: A Dame to Kill For not even making the top five, or cracking the $10 million mark. The #4 and #5 finishers look poised to make between $8 million and $11 million, while Sin City will probabliy generate only between $6 million and $7 million, putting it on pace to lose money since its rumored production budget was over $60 million.

With fairly optimistic long-term projections for Big Hero 6, it seems likely Sin City will be the smallest opening of any comic book movie this year.

Back in 2005, the first Sin City was a surprise hit, drawing $29.8 million on its opening weekend and going on to top $150 million worldwide on a more modest $40 million budget.

Guardians of the Galaxy remains on pace to become the year's biggest domestic hit, and could top $250 million this weekend, moving it into the #3 spot behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Lego Movie. Franchise lead Chris Pratt looks on pace to become the first actor this year whose films have made $500 million in the U.S.