The Marvel Cinematic Universe was due some good news after the Multiverse Saga stuttered from one misfire to the next, and James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has come along to deliver it, even if the titular team’s final stand is the worst-reviewed of the trilogy.
Kevin Feige probably doesn’t care all that much as long as it makes a ton of money, which is exactly what it’s been doing. Heading into its second weekend in theaters, Vol. 3 had already crossed $400 million at the box office, and it’s expected to sail past the half-billion mark by the end of tomorrow with the greatest of ease.
To put that into perspective, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania topped out with $475 million in the coffers after the end of its entire run in multiplexes, meaning the MCU’s marquee band of cosmic misfits will have taken just one week to earn more money than Peyton Reed’s Quantum Realm caper did from beginning to end.
Sure, it’s another black mark against Quantumania‘s reputation – not that it needed any more sullying to begin with – but the real question now is whether or not Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 can fly as high as its predecessors. If it doesn’t, then more doom and gloom will be predicted for the formerly bulletproof superhero saga, although at least it isn’t going to go down as an unmitigated disaster like Marvel Studios’ last wide release did.
Good for the Guardians, then, but yet another reminder that Scott Lang’s third outing is one of the MCU’s biggest-ever failures.
