“Oh, yeah!” Walt Disney Pictures and Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy opened to a massive $11.2 million last night, which is the biggest Thursday evening start for a movie in 2014! It means the James Gunn-directed adaptation is on track to surpass The Bourne Ultimatum‘s August opening weekend record of $69.2 million. Overseas, the $170 million-budgeted movie debuted in 42 markets, in which it grossed about $11 million on Thursday.
Today, the movie expands into 4,080 theaters, which is the widest release for an August opening, surpassing G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra‘s 4,007 theaters in 2009.
In comparison to earlier movies this year, Captain America: The Winter Soldier opened to $10.2 million on Thursday night and earned $95 million its first weekend, Godzilla took in $9.3 million and earned $93.2 million, Transformers: Age of Extinction started with $8.8 million for a $100 million weekend, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 debuted to $8.7 million on Thursday for a total of $91.6 million its first weekend.
Guardians of the Galaxy Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close and Benicio del Toro.
