Robert Downey Jr. Calls 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' Marvel's Best Movie

by Josh Wigler

34 mins ago

There are no Avengers in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” There is no Tony Stark. There is no Shellhead. And yet, that’s not stopping Robert Downey Jr. from making a very bold claim: “Guardians of the Galaxy” is Marvel’s best movie yet.

The four-time Iron Man actor (soon to make it five with next year’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron“) tells the Toronto Sun,
“‘Galaxy’ in some ways is the best Marvel movie ever. … And it’s odd
for someone with — on occasion — an ego the size of mine to actually say
that!”

Downey backs up his claim by saying Marvel turned a bunch of a-holes low-level characters like Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon into the biggest stars of the summer, and perhaps the whole year, all without assistance from Iron Man, Hulk and the rest of Earth’s mightiest heroes.

“We’re talking about how the Iron Mans and the Thors and the Captain
Americas and the Avengers movies have afforded Marvel the opportunity to
essentially take what was a third-tier, minor, kind of upstart bit of
potential from one of their comic books series and say: ‘Look!’ ” Downey
said. “It’s like you have a great quarterback, and his brother plays
for another team, and then you say: ‘Look, this is their second cousin
and we think he has a great arm and he should start.’ And then he goes
and wins the Superbowl!”

More than anything, Downey’s impressed by what the Disney-backed
Marvel was able to accomplish with “Guardians,” and what they’re able to
accomplish all of their other films.

“The armature and breadth of what Disney has done in their ability to put things to market is unprecedented,” Downey said.

Downey returns as Iron Man in next summer’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” in theaters May 1, 2015.

 - MTV

Weekend Report: 'Guardians' Becomes Biggest Movie of the Summer

Guardians of the Galaxy

August 24, 2014
After trailing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the past two weeks, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy moved back in to first place this weekend.

In the process, Guardians of the Galaxy passed Transformers: Age of Extinction to become the highest-grossing movie of the Summer at the domestic box office.

Among the newcomers, If I Stay had a solid debut, while Sin City: A Dame to Kill For imploded.

The Top 12 earned $102.5 million this weekend. That's up 14 percent from the same frame last year.

Guardians of the Galaxy eased 32 percent to $17.2 million. It has now earned over $251 million, and by Friday it will pass fellow Marvel movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($259.8 million) to become the top grosser of the year. It also now seems likely that Guardians will end its run with over $300 million.

In second place, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
fell 41 percent to $16.7 million. Through 17 days, the movie has earned
$145.5 million, and is on track to finish with at least $175 million.

Playing at 2,907 locations, If I Stay took third place with $15.7 million. That's a step up from Charlie St. Cloud ($12.4 million) and last weekend's The Giver ($12.3 million). It's also worth noting that it opened on par with One Direction: This is Us ($15.8 million), which was released around the same time last year and was also targeted toward younger women.

As expected, the audience did wind up skewing young (61 percent under 25) and female (77 percent). While If I Stay
did receive a solid "A-" CinemaScore, it's the kind of movie that tends
to fall off quickly after opening weekend; a final total around $40
million seems likely.

Let's Be Cops was crushed by
critics, but moviegoers seem to be in to it: the comedy eased 39 percent
to $10.8 million this weekend. To date, it has earned $45.1 million.

High school football drama When the Game Stands Tall rounded out the Top Five with $8.4 million. That's a bit lower than recent sports movies Million Dollar Arm and Draft Day, but is still essentially in the same (low) range.

It
received an "A-" CinemaScore, and should play to family audiences for
the next few weeks. Look for a final total around $25 million.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For opened in eighth place with just $6.32 million. That's down a stunning 78 percent from the original Sin City's debut. Excluding his first movie, El Mariachi, this is the third-lowest debut of director Robert Rodriguez's career (Machete Kills and Shorts were worse).

During the nine-year gap between the first and second Sin City, a few key things happened. First, the comic book aesthetic that made Sin City so unique has been cribbed by many other movies; ironically, some of the most obvious imitators are fellow Frank Miller projects 300 and The Spirit. What was once a fresh approach now has a "been there, done that" feel to it.

Adding
to this is the fact that director Robert Rodriguez's brand has taken a
bit of a hit in recent years. Specifically, Rodriguez has had a tough
time selling sequels: Spy Kids: All the Time in the World was off 66 percent from its predecessor, while Machete Kills was down 70 percent.

The
movie also had a fairly light marketing effort: anecdotally, many
people seemed surprised to learn that the movie was in theaters this
weekend.

Finally, it's worth considering whether or not the first Sin City
was actually as well-liked as it appears to be. The movie received good
reviews and has a spot on IMDb's Top 250 list, but that sampling could
be inconsistent with more general views on it.

Looking ahead, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For seems poised to fall off quickly. It's not going to close anywhere near $20 million, and could even fall short of $15 million.

Around-the-World Roundup

Lucy led the overseas box office this weekend with $34 million. The Luc Besson
thriller opened to a massive $6.3 million in Taiwan, where a
significant portion of the movie is set. It also had strong debuts in
the U.K. ($5.2 million) and Spain ($3.5 million). So far, Lucy
has earned $103 million overseas, and still has many markets left to
open; it expands in to Brazil, Japan and Mexico next weekend.

Without any major new markets, Guardians of the Galaxy
fell 49 percent to $20.7 million. It has grossed $237.6 million so far,
and still has Germany, Italy, Japan and China on the way.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 added $18.2 million this weekend, which pushed its total past $400 million. China is now its biggest market with $48.2 million.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles took in $15.5 million, bringing its total to $93.2 million. It has yet to open in most major markets.
 - Box Office Mojo

Why The "Guardians Of The Galaxy" Oldies Mixtape Is One Of The Year's Best Soundtracks

Chris Pratt in Guardians of the Galaxy Marvel Studios

With apologies to Zach Braff and his painstaking mix of new and familiar indie rock in Wish I Was Here, the best soundtracks of the summer have been proudly uncool. First there was Boyhood,

a film that uses its musical choices as chronological signposts along
its 12-year journey. The music that accompanies Mason’s (Ellar Coltrane)
growing up is acutely of its moment — stuff like Sheryl Crow’s “Soak Up The Sun” and Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” and Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know.”
They’re not meant to be the best songs or the most on point, but the
aural wallpaper that was once inescapable, and that’s instantly
evocative of a particular stretch of time.

The music that carries Guardians of the Galaxy through its interplanetary adventure is even more joyously unhip. Marvel’s latest movie has an AM Gold
soundtrack that, on one level, is completely at odds with its sci-fi
setting, and that on another, better level, is absolutely perfect. It’s
powered by a literal cassette mixtape — Awesome Mix Vol.1 — made
for Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) when he was a Midwestern kid, by a dying
mom who wanted him to hear her favorite songs. They’re ’60s and ’70s
radio fodder, classic and cheesy pop hits that have survived enough
decades to accrue the heft of collective memory. When the title splashes
across the screen, it’s over a wide shot of Peter with his Sony Walkman
headphones on, rocking his way through the craggy landscape of an
abandoned planet to the sounds of Redbone’s “Come And Get Your Love.”

Marvel Studios

Marvel Studios

It’s such an effervescent sequence, Peter there in the corner of a screen filled with fantastical scenery out of Flash Gordon,
jiving to a hit single from 1974 on an obsolete electronics artifact.
It sets the tone for what turns out to be an emphatically distinctive
movie from director and co-writer James Gunn, but it also sets up the
unusual tension that makes Guardians of the Galaxy
work so well — it’s a throwback sci-fi movie that exists in a universe
in which the franchises it owes a debt to actually exist.

Guardians of the Galaxy summons the look and feel of space operas and comedies from the ’70s and ’80s like The Last Starfighter, Battle Beyond the Stars, Red Dwarf, and, of course, Star Wars,
but it also gives us good reason to believe that Peter grew up watching
those movies himself. He does look pretty happy jetting over crevices
populated by giant space eels and wooing alien women of various shades
of red and green, like a guy who, even though he was kidnapped, wasn’t
sorry to be lifted away from a scene of real emotional anguish on Earth
to escape into epic interstellar adventures.

The mixtape wasn’t a late addition to Guardians of the Galaxy.
Gunn told BuzzFeed the idea of the Walkman was the first thing that
came to him, and became the center of the story. “We’re bringing a bunch
of people into this weird, strange, wonderful, beautiful, colorful
place, but that can be a little off-putting,” said Gunn. “I felt like,
for me, the music was a way to invite you in and make you feel a little
more comfortable, because it’s something we’re familiar with in the face
of all this oddness.” The songs were written into the screenplay, and
Dave Jordan, the music supervisor, was able to clear every track Gunn
requested.

Marvel Studios

The music is comfortable, because unless you’re an extraterrestrial yourself, it’s practically impossible to have avoided hearing at least the irresistible strains of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” which plays over the end of the movie, if not the Runaways’ “Cherry Bomb,” Rupert Holmes’ wretched novelty hit “Escape (The Piña Colada Song),” or Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling,”

which was used so memorably in the trailer. They’re songs that would
play at weddings or prompt boozy bar singalongs, and it’s sharply
relatable that, far from home, Peter reaches for them as musical comfort
food. They bring a human edge to a story that makes no attempt to be
grounded, that bounces from alien extremists to mining colonies to space
prisons and never comes close to Earth again.

The use of music in Guardians of the Galaxy also echoes one of the greatest discordant song choices in recent movie history — when WALL·E opens by layering “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” from the musical Hello, Dolly!
over shots of our environmentally devastated, empty planet. When you
get over the shock of the familiar, cheery strains accompanying such
remote imagery, there’s an extra impact to the combination that has
nothing to do with the dissonance and everything to do with the idea of
this scrap of human existence enduring in such a hostile place. Guardians of the Galaxy presents a similar flicker of the mundane but moving in the middle of a spectacular, otherworldly landscape.

Peter Quill isn’t just human, he’s an ’80s kid, and he’s brought
those remnants of his pop culture-saturated childhood with him to his
life of space scavenging and piracy, toting an aura of wood-paneled rec
rooms and arcade games, thermoses with cartoon branding, and Who’s the Boss?.
In his hands, the Five Stairsteps’ soul standard “Ooh Child” may not be
the weapon with which he’s able to save the galaxy, but it’s enough to
give a supervillain pause — and that’s a pretty great achievement for
any mixtape.

'Guardians of the Galaxy' Trailer Sends ‘Hooked On a Feeling’ Sales Through the Roof

Oogachaka!

Sales of Blue Swede's "Hooked On a Feeling"
have gone through the roof following its use in the new trailer for the
film "Guardians of the Galaxy."

The song sold more than 2,000
downloads on Wednesday (Feb. 19), up about 700% in daily sales, industry
sources say. The two-and-a-half-minute trailer bowed Tuesday (Feb. 18)
on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" at 11:35 p.m. eastern.

Sources say
that the song's 2,000 in digital sales instantly gave the tune its best
digital sales week ever. (And again, that's after just one day of
sales.) The current sales tracking week ends on Feb. 23. We'll have the
official weekly sales of the track, collected by Nielsen SoundScan, on
Feb. 26.

In the week ending Feb. 16, the song sold a negligible figure.

In
the trailer for "Guardians of the Galaxy," the familiar "oogachaka!"
chant from the song can be heard at around the 1:30 mark, and is then
repeated during a montage of fiery action scenes. The song is then heard
without interruption for the last 20 seconds of the trailer.

The song's previous best digital week came in 2008 when it sold 1,000 downloads (in the week ending March 16).


"Guardians of the Galaxy," starring Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, will be released in theaters on Aug. 1.

Blue
Swede's "Feeling" became a No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit for the Swedish
band, reaching the top on the chart dated April 6, 1974. It was one of
four Hot 100 hits for the act, which also charted a top 10 single with
"Never My Love" (No. 7) in October 1974.

Blue Swede's take on
"Feeling" is one of three visits to the chart for the song, which was
first a hit for B.J. Thomas in 1968. He took the song to No. 5 on the
Hot 100 in early 1969. Decades later, in 1998, thanks in part to the TV
show "Ally McBeal," the song returned to the chart. A dancing baby --
grooving to Blue Swede's "Feeling" -- appeared as a hallucination on the
show in January 1998. Known as "Baby Cha Cha," the animated infant was
already a viral sensation by that point, but its popularity hit a new
level after its use in "Ally McBeal."

That popularization --
along with Baby Cha Cha's subsequent appearances in assorted TV
commercials -- led to a new recording and commercial CD release of the
song, credited to the anonymous studio group Baby Talk. The single went
on to sell 111,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, helping it
reach No. 71 on the Hot 100 the week of June 6, 1998.

 | Billboard

Hear our hypothetical 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Awesome Mix Vol. 2

Guardians of the Galaxy‘s soundtrack figures so prominently in the film that it almost qualifies as a supporting character.


Throughout the movie, it provides hooks for jokes and action
sequences and establishes a few important moments between its primary
characters. The fact that it’s all supposed to be coming from a tape
made for Peter Quill by his mother before she died—and before he was
whisked away from Earth by aliens—underlines the loneliness that defines
him. And it’s also just really good at doing what a soundtrack’s
supposed to do, bolstering the movie’s rambunctious oddball energy with a
bunch of vintage soft rock and soul songs that were, for the most part,
considered throwaway pop tunes when they were released. In other words,
just like the story’s protagonists, these songs are misfits.


Spoiler alert: At the end of the movie, Peter finds out that he’s been unknowingly carrying around a sequel to the Awesome Mix Vol. 1 tape. Presumably, we’ll hear what’s on it in the GOTG sequel—but honestly, that’s a really long wait. Using director James Gunn’s interview about the soundtrack at Vulture as a guide, here’s a hypothetical Awesome Mix Vol. 2, assembled using same method Gunn employed for Vol. 1: choosing hits from the ’70s Billboard
charts that aren’t quite important enough to have entered the pop
pantheon, and favoring the kind of lightweight, slightly funky stuff
that defined AOR radio back then. (We also included a couple of songs
he’d picked for GOTG that didn’t make the final cut.)


At 18 songs, it’s longer by half than the official soundtrack—but
let’s presume that Peter’s mother had access to 60-minute cassette tapes
and didn’t want to short him.

GET EW ON YOUR TABLET: Subscribe today and get instant access!


AWESOME MIX VOL. 2 TRACKLISTING


Badfinger – “No Matter What”


Blues Image – “Ride Captain Ride”


Andy Kim – “Rock Me Gently”


Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds – “Don’t Pull Your Love”


Three Dog Night – “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)”


The Archies – “Sugar Sugar”


Jackie DeShannon – “Put a Little Love in Your Heart”


Stevie Wonder – “Superstition”


Harry Nilsson – “Everybody’s Talkin'”


Grover Washington, Jr. – “Just the Two of Us”


T. Rex – “Bang a Gong (Get It On)”


Steve Miller Band – “Take the Money and Run”


Gilbert O’Sullivan – “Alone Again (Naturally)”


Electric Light Orchestra – “Livin’ Thing”


King Harvest – “Dancing in the Moonlight”


KC & the Sunshine Band – “Boogie Shoes”


Sweet – “Ballroom Blitz”


Commodores – “Easy”

| EW.com

Why a '70s Mixtape Propels the Plot of 'Guardians of the Galaxy'

Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord in Marvel's Guardians Of The Galaxy, 2014.





Marvel

Director James Gunn promises to share the full mixtape with fans soon

Guardians of the Galaxy features a tree-like
creature named Groot, a talking raccoon and an electronic device just as
alien to children of the digital age: a Sony Walkman containing a
mixtape packed with '70s pop hits like 10cc's "I'm Not in Love," Rupert
Holmes' "Escape (The Pina Colada Song), The Runaways' "Cherry Bomb," and
David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream."


The archaic device belongs to Guardians lead, Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, played by Parks & Recreation
actor Chris Pratt. "It wasn't in the comics, and it wasn't in the
original script," explains James Gunn, 43, co-writer and director of the
hotly anticipated Marvel Comics adaptation.


Gunn added the plot device to establish Quill's attachment to earth
and an emotional connection to his late mother (who gave him the Walkman
and the tunes). Gunn simply chose songs he believed Quill's mother
would have liked, but he says, "There's also a sort of 'spacey-ness'
about the tracks that reminds me of the [Marvel] comic-book writer and
artist Jim Starlin."


Gunn chose songs for the movie by scouring Billboard's singles charts
"for every year in the '70s," compiling a master list of 500 songs. He
ultimately trimmed it down to 120 songs and then a 90-minute mixtape.
When Pratt was hired, Gunn says, "he asked if he could have the mixtape”
to prepare for the role. Gunn says he will likely release the full list
to fans in the future.


At the top of his list: Jackson 5's "I Want You Back," which Gunn
says "is the greatest pop song ever written." Gunn also enjoys Redbone's
"Come and Get Your Love." "I still love that song after probably
listening to it for 10 hours straight in the editing room and then also
on set. I think that's a testament to how great these songs are -- that I
still like them," he says.


With so many choices, some songs just didn't make the cut. According
to Gunn, he most regrets cutting a scene featuring Electric Light
Orchestra's "Livin' Thing" from the film. "If there was a house band for
Guardians…it would be ELO," he says.


Not only was the soundtrack written directly into the screenplay,
Gunn also played them on set alongside Tyler Bates' score, which was
also composed before filming. "We really baked the music into the
movie," says Gunn. "Having it be part of the initial filmmaking process
as opposed to something that you tack on at the end...it really made it a
much more holistic experience."


Despite the Walkman's importance, Gunn says he will likely take
another approach in the follow up. "To keep up the true tradition of the
movie…it may not have the music playing in the same exact way as the
first one," he says, also hoping other filmmakers will feel the same for
their films. "We did this from the heart, so if someone tries to copy
it, I'm not sure it would work."

 | Billboard

'Guardians of the Galaxy' Soundtrack Battling for No. 1 on Billboard 200

Guardians of the Galaxy

The hot-selling Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 soundtrack is battling the new Now 51 compilation for No. 1 on next week's Billboard 200 chart.

Industry forecasters suggest the Awesome album could sell just over 100,000 in the week ending Aug. 10, while the Now 51 set is also aiming for sell around that many copies. (On Wednesday, Aug. 6, sources were projecting Now 51 to finish atop the tally, but it was too early -- at that point -- to estimate Awesome's potential sales.)


The Billboard 200's new top 10 will be revealed on Wednesday, Aug. 13.


It would be the second week on the chart for the Awesome
album, which debuted at No. 3 with a bigger-than-expected 60,000 sold in
the week ending Aug. 3, according to Nielsen SoundScan.


If Awesome hits No. 1, it will mark the second soundtrack to reach No. 1 this year, following Frozen. Both albums were released by the Disney Music Group: Awesome on Marvel/Hollywood Records, and Frozen on Walt Disney Records.


Both the Awesome and Frozen albums also currently
sit in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 (Nos. 3 and 6, respectively),
giving the Disney Music Group (DMG) two concurrent top 10 sets for the
first time in a year. DMG last managed the feat on the chart dated Aug.
17, 2013 (with the Teen Beach Movie soundtrack on Walt Disney Records, and Selena Gomez's Stars Dance, on Hollywood Records).

| Billboard

Marvel's 'Guardians' rockets to $94 million domestic debut

(Reuters) - "Guardians of the Galaxy," Walt Disney Co's offbeat space adventure featuring extraterrestrial misfits and a talking raccoon, made $94 million in ticket sales this weekend, setting a record for an August film opening.

The film's strong beginning, however, isn't likely to jumpstart a lackluster summer box office season. The 3D movie, which stars lesser-known characters in Disney's Marvel comic book universe, added $66.4 million from international markets, for a global debut of $160.4 million, Disney said on Sunday. "Guardians" outgunned last weekend's leader, the science-fiction thriller "Lucy" that collected another $18.3 million in sales at domestic theaters, according to estimates from Rentrak.

"Lucy" stars Scarlett Johansson as a woman with a super-powered brain.

"Get On Up," a biography of the soul singer James Brown, was third with $14 million in its first weekend in theaters.

"Guardians" stars an ensemble cast that includes Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper and Chris Pratt. After positive reviews, the film was the year's biggest Thursday night opening with $11.2 million in sales starting with 7 p.m. shows.

Even before the film's opening, Walt Disney said it was planning a sequel for release in July 2017. Head of distribution for Walt Disney Studios Dave Hollis attributed the strong performance of "Guardians" to a combination of momentum started by "Transformers: Age of Extinction" in June, skillful marketing, and strong reviews.

"It starts with a great movie, and certainly the marketing was inspired," Hollis said. Disney had marketed the film's lighter moments in trailers and commercials, including a machinegun-firing raccoon, to expand its popularity beyond traditional Marvel movie fans.

The movie features a soundtrack of music from the 1970s, including the songs "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Spirit in the Sky."

"Transformers: Age of Extinction," another Marvel film, just passed $1 billion in global box office returns, according to Paramount Pictures.

"Guardians" performance, which beat Hollywood forecasts of a $65 million to $80 million opening, are not likely to energize the summer box office, however, as ticket sales are currently running 18 percent behind last year, according to Rentrak.

"It doesn't end it but it's certainly a step in the right direction," said Rentrak's senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian about the slump.

It only gave the overall summer box office a two percent lift, he said.

"Hercules," starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as the legendary muscle man, was fourth for the weekend with $10.7 million.

"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" was fifth with $8.7 million. The film has totaled more than $189.3 million in sales in U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak.

"Lucy" and "Get On Up" were released by Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.

Fox, a unit of Twenty-First Century Fox, distributed "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes." "Hercules" and "Transformers: Age of Extinction" were released by Paramount Pictures, a Viacom unit.

(Reporting By Ronald Grover and Andrea Burzynski; Editing by Lynne O'Donnell)

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ & ‘The Avengers’ Crossover in the Works

Disney and Marvel Studios took a big risk with not only developing a major blockbuster release based on their relatively obscure property Guardians of theGalaxy, but tapping indie auteur James Gunn (Super) as writer-director. As this weekend’s box office numbers prove, the gamble has paid off, with the overall positive fan and critical reception of Guardians opening up all kinds of possibilities for Marvel’s Cinematic Universe.

Given the carefully strategized, interconnected nature of the Marvel movies so far, fans have speculated on how long it would take for the Guardians to cross paths with The Avengers. Such a crossover has always been a possibility, considering that we learned long ago that Marvel’s big bad Thanos would show up in GoTG, and Gunn himself voiced his desire to see his entry into the Marvel canon “grow into other things.”

There has been no official, studio-sanctioned announcements about any such event, but with Guardians poised to maybe overtake April’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier‘s opening weekend take, the film’s director and stars spoke with Yahoo! UK (courtesy of /Film) about the idea.

Just about every actor wants to see the Guardians eventually teaming up (or going eyeball-to-eyeball) with The Avengers. You can watch the full video above, but James Gunn is closest to the Marvel brain trust and said the following:

We talked about all sorts of possibilities [for a crossover] and I kind of know what the basic plan is. That could or could not include a couple of Avengers and a couple of Guardians meeting up, or all of the Avengers and all of the Guardians. But, we do inhabit the same universe and they’re pretty big personalities that are likely to, at some point or another, run into each other.

Star Vin Diesel, who voices sentient tree Groot, also believes such a crossover is inevitable, saying:

I think there’s going to be huge fans of the Guardians and there are huge fans of the Avengers and I think the discussion has already been had. I think the audience may demand something like that.

Karen Gillan (Nebula) responded to the idea with “Why not?” and Zoe Saldana (Gamora) thinks the Guardians might actually be more than a match for the Avengers, but there is one (sort of) dissenter in the form of Star-Lord himself, Chris Pratt, who said:

If you go from five characters and you add another five characters, that’s ten characters. That can be very difficult. That being said, Marvel knows their stuff. Knows their business. And I see this, rather than taking the worlds that already exist and putting them together, this opens up doors into brand new worlds. We take characters we didn’t even know existed in the four corners of the universe and we see their stories.

All of these characters do indeed inhabit the same, ever-expanding universe, and now that Guardians of the Galaxy 2 has been confirmed for 2017, we can maybe start wondering about those outlying release dates Marvel has lined up for 2017, 2018 and 2019. We know that Doctor Strange is likely to take the remaining 2016 date, and Thor 3 could appear in November 2017.

Or will “a couple of Avengers” actually show up in GoTG 2? In the aftermath of the 2012 film The Avengers, the individual Phase 2 sequels have not included any other team members outside of a couple of clever little cameos. It’s conceivable that Marvel will begin to change up their formula as they expand the universe across the galaxy and work on establishing other titles beyond the main Avengers lineup.

What do you think, Screen Ranters? Should the Avengers and the Guardians be featured together on the big-screen? If so, when?

Guardians of the Galaxy is currently in theaters. The Avengers: Age of Ultron opens on May 1st, 2015, Ant-Man on July 17th, 2015, Captain America 3 on May 6th, 2016, unannounced films on July 8th, 2016 and May 5th, 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on July 28th, 2017, and unannounced movies on November 3rd, 2017, July 6th, 2018, November 2nd, 2018, and May 3rd, 2019.

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.

Friday Box Office: 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Is Off to Huge Start

We’re barely into the first weekend for Guardians of the Galaxy,
yet the latest Marvel film is off to a huge start. The movie, directed
by James Gunn, had a strong Thursday and Friday — strong enough for
analysts to project an opening in excess of $95 million, making it one
of the biggest openings of the year.


Guardians of the Galaxy is looking to take in $40 million on
Friday alone, boosted by a haul of roughly $11.2 million from midnight
screenings on Thursday. This will all combine to make Guardians of the Galaxy the new No. 1 all-time opening in August, toppling the $69.2 million North American debut for The Bourne Ultimatum. If it surpasses $95 million, it will take the title of No. 2 opening of the year from Captain America: The Winter Soldier; if it surpasses $100 million, it will unseat Transformers: Age of Extinction as the year’s top debut.


The hype for Guardians of the Galaxy is so stellar that
Disney and Marvel are teaming up for a sequel, confirmed for release on
July 28, 2017, with James Gunn returning to the director’s chair.


The massive opening for Guardians of the Galaxy means that none of this weekend’s other new offerings have a chance in Hell of competing.

The James Brown biopic Get On Up is expected to open to about $15 million for the weekend. The movie, starring 42‘s Chadwick Boseman as The Godfather of Soul and True Blood star Nelsan Ellis as best friend and collaborator Bobby Byrd, has had some mixed reviews. The film, co-produced by Mick Jagger for a cost of $30 million, is directed by The Help‘s Tate Taylor, and reunites him with stars Viola Davis and Oscar winner Octavia Spencer. While this is a bit of an underwhelming opening for the film, the weekend is still far from over, and the movie is likely to do traffic from older audiences looking to avoid the noise of summer blockbusters as we enter the dog days of the summer movie season. So I suppose we’ll have to take a wait-and-see approach on its chances. That said, having just seen it myself last night, I have to say it was far better than I was expecting. Boseman and Ellis are absolutely outstanding, and Davis and Spencer are as excellent as they’ve always been. I’d say give it a shot if you’re looking for something other than an action blockbuster.
I’ll be back with more updates on the box office as the weekend rolls on.
Via: The Hollywood Reporter

Credit: Marvel Studios