James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 got the official summer movie season off to a solid start with a $145 million debut, which along with Beauty and the Beast, which bowed with $174 million, gives Disney the top two openers of 2017 so far.  Guardians sucked most of the oxygen out of the room, accounting for 70% of all the earnings of the top ten films, and fueling an 87.5% increase over the same weekend last year, though that comparison is not really fair, since in 2016 the summer season kicked off a week later with the debut of Captain America: Civil War, which opened with $179.1 million and drove the box office total of the top 12 films to $233.6 million, which is about 21% better than this past weekend’s $185.2 million.

While Guardians Vol.2 did come in a hair under expectations, its $145 million debut (which will likely be pushed up a bit when official figures are released tomorrow) was still almost 54% better than the original Guardians’ $94 million dollar bow—giving Guardians Vol.2 the distinction of having the biggest opening day jump between the first and second films in a Marvel Cinematic Universe release (though the increase from Captain America: Winter Soldier--the second Cap film—to Captain America: Civil War was greater).

The big question is, how will Guardians Vol. 2 finish its North American run?  The average multiplier for an MCU film is a healthy 2.73, which means that Gunn’s second Guardians film would finish around $395 million.  Though the first Guardians film managed a sterling 3.53 multiplier, it did not face the competition that Guardians Vol.2 will see, starting next weekend with the release of Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Ritchie’s attempt to do to Arthurian legends what he did to Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes (bastardize the hell out of a classic property and make a lot money).

Guardians Vol.2 should still have some ammunition left for its coming battles.  Gunn’s second Guardians opus has a very good (for a superhero film) 81% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, and more importantly, earned a solid “A” CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences, which skewed male (56%).  In terms of age demographics, the results for the “PG-13” film were fairly well-balanced with 40% of the crowd under 25, but one weak sport for the film was teenagers, who only accounted for 9% of the audience.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): May 5-7, 2017
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2	$145,049,000	4,347	$33,368	$145,049,000	1
2	The Fate of the Furious	$8,528,965	3,595	$2,372	$207,136,495	4
3	The Boss Baby	$6,175,000	3,284	$1,880	$156,735,525	6
4	How to be a Latin Lover	$5,250,000	1,203	$4,364	$20,653,320	2
5	Beauty and the Beast	$4,943,000	2,680	$1,844	$487,594,615	8
6	The Circle	$4,020,000	3,163	$1,271	$15,715,113	2
7	Baahubali 2: The Conclusion	$3,242,532	418	$7,757	$16,175,528	2
8	Gifted	$2,055,000	1,874	$1,097	$19,240,331	5
9	Going in Style	$1,900,000	2,033	$935	$40,600,918	5
10	Smurfs: The Lost Village	$1,820,000	1,902	$957	$40,570,574	5

Overseas Guardians Vol.2 is also outperforming its predecessor, as it brought in an additional $124 million for a 13-day total (it opened in many markets a week ago (see "'Furious' Wins Again, 'Guardians' Big Overseas") of $282.6 million and a current global haul of $427.6 million.  With a mammoth production cost rumored to be around $200 million, Guardians Vol. 2 is just beginning to sniff profitability, but the film has certainly gotten off to a great start.  Interestingly, over 40% of the Guardians Vol.2 revenue has come from 3D showings—though most of that is from overseas where the extra-dimensional effect remains much more popular than it is here in North America.

Universal’s Fate of the Furious, which had ruled the box office for three weeks, dropped 57.2% to an estimated $8.5 million to drive its North America total to $207.1 million and its worldwide total to 1.158 billion--note that just 17.9% of that total comes from North America.

Dreamworks Animation’s Boss Baby dropped just 34.1% in its sixth weekend as it drove its domestic total to a solid $156.7 million, while Disney’s live action Beauty and the Beast posted the lowest decline of any holdover in the top ten—slipping just 27.6% as it earned $4.9 million to bring its 2017-leading domestic box office total to $487.6 million.  Beauty’s worldwide total of $1.186 billion making it the 11th highest-grossing film of all time (not adjusting for inflation of course).

The two “foreign language” films that surprised the box office last weekend, continued to do quite well in a modest fashion.  How To Be A Latin Lover, which stars Eugenio Derbez and is available in both Spanish and English versions, dropped 57%, but still earned $5.2 million from just over 1,200 theaters, while the South Indian “Tollywood” epic Baahubali 2: The Conclusion managed to pull $3.2 million from just 450 theaters, giving it the second best per-theater average in the top ten ($7,757) trailing only Guardians Vol. 2’s stellar $33, 368.

Mention should be made of Fox Searchlight’s Gifted, a family drama that has shown some staying power, adding $2.2 million in its fifth weekend in theaters to bring its total to a surprising $19.4 million.  In limited release, another indie art film Azazel Jacobs’ The Lovers, did well, while the Julian Assange documentary Risk did not.

Be sure and check back here next week, when competition really heats up with the release of Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword in over 3,600 theaters, and the heavily-promoted Amy Schumer/Goldie Hawn comedy Snatched in 3,300 theaters.