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PEOPLE & ARTS Monday 8 May 2017

‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ blasts off with $145M debut

critics on Rotten Tomatoes. But whether “Guardians” budget sequels like “Alien:
In two weeks of internation- can turn the tide for sum- Covenant,” ‘’Pirates of the
al release, the film has also mer sequels will be a much- Caribbean: Dead Men Tell
made $269 million over- followed story line as the No Tales,” ‘’Cars 3,” ‘’Trans-
seas. A third “Guardians” season progresses. The bot- formers: The Last Knight,”
is already planned, as are tom line of just about every ‘’Despicable Me 3” and
crossovers with Marvel’s studio depends on it. “War for the Planet of the
Avengers. On the horizon are big- Apes.” q

This image released by Disney-Marvel shows Zoe Saldana, from
left, Karen Gillan, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista and Rocket, voiced
by Bradley Cooper, in a scene from, “Guardians Of The Galaxy
Vol. 2.” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” has rocketed to a $17
million opening night, beating out early showings of the first film.
Associated Press
JAKE COYLE weekend in May. Marvel
AP Film Writer has used the same week-
NEW YORK (AP) — “Guard- end to effectively launch
ians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” the summer season for the
rocketed to an estimated last decade.
$145 million debut in North The opening for “Guard-
America, kicking off Hol- ians Vol. 2,” made for
lywood’s summer movie about $200 million, is the
season with something the second largest of the year,
movie business has been following Disney’s “Beauty
craving: a sequel more and the Beast” ($174.8 mil-
successful than the original. lion). But it also turns back
Director James Gunn’s the tide of underperform-
second “Guardians” film ing sequels, a developing
opened 54 percent higher scourge to Hollywood.
than the 2014 runaway hit, “We spent a lot of time
according to studio esti- looking at sequels and the
mates Sunday. idea of sequel-itis,” said Da-
That release, which intro- vid Hollis, distribution chief
duced the intergalactic for Disney. “Really, poor
band of misfits played by quality films have been the
Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, thing that has, more than
Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel anything, been rejected by
and Bradley Cooper, de- consumers over time. The
buted with $94 million in its ambition here was to make
first weekend. something that was unbe-
Once a little-known, odd- lievably fresh and exciting.
ball property in Marvel’s As long as we can contin-
vault, the “Guardians of ue to deliver high-quality
the Galaxy” have grown storytelling, high-quality
into one of the comic-book world-creation, we’ll be in
factory’s biggest brands. great shape.”
The Walt Disney Co. vali- “Guardians of the Galaxy
dated the rise of “Guard- Vol. 2” scored on that front,
ians,” too, by moving it landing an A CinemaScore
from August (when the from audiences and an 82
original opened) to the first percent “fresh” rating from