The summer movie movie season now has one month under its belt and the results, thus far, have been fairly lackluster, save for some evergreen Guardians. As the dust settles on the worst grossing Memorial Day weekend take since 1999 – where Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tale No Tales and Baywatch started their domestic runs rather sluggishly – this past month has seen costly bomb in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and diminishing returns on Alien: Covenant, which plummeted a worrying 60% in its second week of release.
The largest bright sides have come courtesy of Disney, as Marvel hit Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 has so far taken in a massive $340 million domestically (and another $450 million overseas). Over the holiday weekend, Guardians: Vol. 2 notched a milestone as it overtook the domestic gross of its predecessor – which earned $333.1 million in the summer of 2014. The James Gunn-directed feature currently ranks as the fifth highest domestic grosser of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with more in the tanks to potentially raise its cume even more.
Disney celebrated another victory over the Memorial Day weekend, as their spring blockbuster Beauty and the Beast surpassed $500 million at the domestic box office. In doing so, the Bill Condon-directed live-action reboot of the Disney animated classic, began just the eighth film in history to cross $500 million at the North American box office. By a large margin, the lavish musical is the highest grossing domestic title of the year (Guardians: Vol. 2 is second) and has earned upwards of $1.2 billion worldwide, enough to net the tenth position is the highest grossing films of all-time (unadjusted for inflation).
Further down, Universal Pictures celebrated an overseas milestone earlier this week as their The Fate of the Furious, the eighth film in their signature franchise, crossed the $1 billion mark at the international box office alone. So far, the film has earned $1.2 billion worldwide; currently stands the eleventh highest grossing film (unadjusted for inflation).
While Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales somewhat disappointed with a four-day take of $78 million, the long-running marintine swashbuckler minted an additional $247 million overseas. Disney clearly hopes that international sales will help the costly production.
All eyes will next lie on Wonder Woman to infuse the box-office is major shot in the arm.
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