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Tuesday September 02, 2014
Box Office: How 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Became the No. 1 Movie of the Year
Come and get your love.
Here are portraits of three summer blockbusters:
Movie A
| Week | Rank | Wknd Box Office | % Drop |
| 1 | 1 | $91,608,337 | |
| 2 | 2 | $35,501,212 | -61.2% |
| 3 | 3 | $16,803,227 | -52.7% |
| 4 | 5 | $7,823,388 | -53.4% |
| 5 | 7 | $3,778,605 | -51.7% |
Movie B
| Week | Rank | Wknd Box Office | % Drop |
| 1 | 1 | $100,038,390 | - |
| 2 | 1 | $37,050,185 | -63.0% |
| 3 | 2 | $16,302,415 | -56.0% |
| 4 | 5 | $9,845,720 | -39.6% |
| 5 | 7 | $4,702,553 | -52.2% |
Movie C
| Week | Rank | Wknd Box Office | % Drop |
| 1 | 1 | $94,320,883 | - |
| 2 | 2 | $42,124,922 | -55.3% |
| 3 | 2 | $25,115,564 | -40.4% |
| 4 | 1 | $17,202,212 | -31.5% |
| 5 | 1 | $17,077,000 | -0.70% |
They all start out about the same place but different things happen. Movie A drops off fast, and keeps dropping at the same heavy pace until it’s irrelevant. Movie B starts out a little higher, drops off a little faster, bounces around a bit; but by the fifth weekend, it, too, is yesterday’s news.
Movie C? It drops off marginally, but then shores itself up. Each weekend it drops off less and less until by the fourth and fifth weekends it reclaims the No. 1 spot.
Movie A is “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” which, domestically, grossed barely half of its opening weekend total ($202 million, currently 8th for the year). Movie B is “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” which ... ditto ($244 million, 4th).
And Movie C? “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which has now grossed $280 million and is currently the No. 1 movie of the year. It also looks to save Hollywood from the ignominy of the first summer without a $300 million movie since 2001. It’s also the first August release to be the No. 1 movie of the summer since ... I don’t know when. Probably B.J. (Before “Jaws”).
How did it happen? Here are the Rotten Tomatoes scores (critics/audience) for all three:
| Movie | Critics | Audience |
| The Amazing Spider-Man 2 | 53% | 69% |
| Transformers: Age of Extinction | 18% | 54% |
| Guardians of the Galaxy | 92% | 95% |
It’s called word of mouth, kids.
It helped that the new wide releases were nothing to take your family to over Labor Day weekend. “As Above/So Below,” a thriller with a 39% RT rating, debuted in fourth with $8.6 million, while “The November Man,” starring Pierce Brosnan (37% RT), debuted in sixth with $7.8 million.
“Frank Miller’s Sin City 2,” meanwhile, continued to fall like a rock. It debuted horribly and still fell off 65% in its second weekend. After 11 days, it's grossed a total of $11 million, which the first “Sin City,” back in 2005, grossed in one day.
It’s called word of mouth, kids.