Refresh for latest…: Disney/Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is rocketing off to a strong start at the international box office. Having debuted on Wednesday in such markets as the UK, France, Germany, Korea, Italy and Japan; and then adding Spain, Australia, Brazil and Mexico among others on Thursday, it has grossed an estimated $35M through yesterday in a total 47 material markets.
Social scores are very strong with some of the best notices for the series. Notable in the early mix is Korea which has been slow to rebound. Heading into the Children’s Day holiday today, the threequel has seen daily increases (rare for this market) and is now at $6.8M through Friday (today’s $3.9M is not included in the totals above). The James Gunn-directed film came out of the gate in Korea with high Naver and Egg scores of 9.44 and 98, respectively; those are better than Ant-Man 3, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and both previous Guardians movies. Wednesday also logged the highest non-local opening day of 2023.
What’s more, even the recently finicky China likes the movie. GOTG3 has a 9.4 from audiences on Maoyan — the highest ever for any MCU film released in China. On Douban, it’s got an 8.6 from critics, which is above the previous Guardians installments. The China gross, including previews, is $7M through today (also not reflected in the offshore total above); this is also despite strong local competition. Although tomorrow is a workday in China, we could be looking at an opening session of $25M. That’s not up to pre-pandemic (nor pre-unofficial Marvel boycott) levels, but is encouraging.
Elsewhere, Latin America bowed No. 1 in all markets. Brazil, with $1.3M, had the second biggest launch day of the year and was 15% ahead of GOTG2. In Europe, France‘s $2.5M came with a 4.2 Allociné score, well ahead of GOTG Vol. 2 and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Germany likewise is seeing social reaction above comps.
Excluding any Friday numbers cited above, the Top 5 markets through Thursday are the UK ($3.6M), Mexico ($3.2M), Korea ($2.9M), France ($2.5M) and Japan ($2.5M).
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