Box office: 'Guardians of the Galaxy' grosses $37.8 million Friday

"Guardians of the Galaxy"

A scene from "Guardians of the Galaxy." (Walt Disney Pictures)

"Guardians of the Galaxy" soared to $37.8 million in ticket receipts at the box office on Friday.

After grossing $11.2 million in Thursday evening showings, the film continued its successful streak during its opening weekend.

Review

Read the review: 'Guardians of the Galaxy's' heroes aren't what you'd expect

Kenneth Turan

Though analysts initially forecast an opening weekend of $70 million to $75 million, many now predict "Guardians" could potentially orbit to $90 to $100 million.

Director
James Gunn's "Guardians," starring Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Vin
Diesel and Zoe Saldana, is the latest release from Disney's Marvel
Studios, the unit behind blockbuster franchises such as “Iron Man,”
“Thor,” “Captain America” and “The Avengers.”
































"Guardians" topped the start for Marvel's "Captain America: The
Winter Soldier," which grossed $10.2 million in its Thursday release. It
also beat the start for "Godzilla" ($9.3 million), "Transformers: Age
of Extinction" ($8.75 million) and "Amazing Spider-Man 2" ($8.7
million).

The film, which cost about $170 million to make, opened
in 4,080 theaters. So far it's been a big hit. On Rotten Tomatoes, it
averaged 92% on the "tomatometer" and 96% of audiences said they wanted
to see it, as of Saturday.

Only
a handful of movies qualify for the exclusive club of films that have
taken in more than $1 billion in worldwide box office -- and only two
have made more than $2 billion. By Charles Fleming | Source: Los Angeles
Times, Box Office Mojo

"Clearly, Marvel is a magic word at the box office right now," Fandango chief correspondent Dave Karger told the Los Angeles Times on Friday.