In its sixth weekend of release James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy topped the box office for the fourth time, a feat that only The Dark Knight, Avatar, and The Hunger Games have been able to accomplish in the past decade.  However, it must be said that Guardians is accomplishing this feat against pretty weak competition--this weekend’s box office was down 25% from the same frame last year when Riddick opened with $19 million.  The weekend after Labor Day is traditionally one of the worst movie-going frames of the year, but the overall gross, estimated at $63.9 million is the worst for this weekend since 2000, and given ticket price inflation it means that Hollywood just had one of its worst weekends in a long, long time.
 
Guardians’ latest triumph was expected--the only new film to open this weekend, the Christian-themed The Identical, bowed at #11—but it still reinforces the magnitude of the achievement by Marvel Studios in launching a new franchise that is not only successful, but the #1 film of the summer.  Guardians is shedding theaters now (down 241 this weekend), but it still managed the best per-screen average (#3,154) of any film on over 100 screens.  Guardians, which dropped 40%, but still earned $10.2 million over the weekend, is the #1 film of the year in North America so far with $294.6 million, and will be over the $300 million mark by this time next week.  Guardians has now earned more than Man of Steel ($291 million), making it the highest grossing domestic superhero film ever that didn’t feature Iron Man, Spider-Man, or Batman.  It is even possible that Guardians could top the domestic totals of Iron Man 2 ($ 312 million) or even Iron Man ($318 million).  The Hunger Games Mockingjay, Part I will likely end up as the #1 film of the year, but for a new franchise, Guardians’ performance has been simply brilliant. 

Overseas a lack of familiarity with the property has definitely hurt more than it did in the States.  It is quite possible that Guardians will end up with the lowest overseas earnings of any of 2014’s superhero-based films.  So far Guardians has earned just $291.6 million outside of North America, but the film has yet to open in Japan and China, so it is a bit early to make any definitive conclusions.
 
Like Guardians, the Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continues to demonstrate solid "legs" and outperform expectations.  The new live-action TMNT film dropped 45.5%, while earning $6.5 million and bringing its domestic total to $174.6 million.
 
The teenage-weeper If I Stay, which is now in its third weekend, dropped 38% as it brought in $5.75 million and drove its domestic total to $39.7 million, which is still less than the debut total of fellow dying-teen girl movie The Fault in Our Stars, which bowed with $48 million earlier this summer.  Still If I Stay, which was produced for just $11 million, is a modest hit for Warner Bros.

Fox’s "R" rated comedy Let’s Be Cops, which landed at #4 on its fourth weekend, has also become a solid moneymaker, as the $17 million production earned $5.4 million to drive its total to $66.6 million.
 
Relativity’s serious "spy" picture The November Man, which stars Pierce Brosnan, slipped 47% in its second frame and landed in sixth place with $4.2 million.
 
The Hundred-Foot Journey, which stars Helen Mirren, is the art house hit of the summer.  The $22 million production has now earned $45.7 million here in North America--and Luc Besson’s Lucy, which stars Scarlett Johansson, was one of this summer’s unsung modest hits.  The $40 million production has earned $121.2 million in the U.S. market.
 
The faith-based film The Identical flopped as it debuted at #11 with just $1.9 million from nearly 2000 theaters for a pitiful $977 per venue average.  Most of this year’s faith-based films have done well (the sports drama When the Game Stands Tall, which finished at #7 in its third frame, has earned $23.5 million), and perhaps Hollywood’s increasingly savvy marketing to the various religious communities will have an effect in the weeks to come, but, short of a real life marketing miracle, The Identical is DOA.
 
An IMAX re-release of Forrest Gump brought in just $405,000 from 337 theaters for a meager $1,202 average.
 
Check back here next week when the Idris Elba/ Taraji P. Henson thriller No Good Deed and the family-friendly Dolphin Tale 2 try to resuscitate the box office.
 
--Tom Flinn