Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 made $28 million of gross box office on its opening weekend in mainland China. That was a solid result in present circumstances, rather than an overwhelming one.
The film easily displaced two of the weaker Chinese titles that had been released a week earlier to take advantage of the five-day May Day holiday season.
Born to Fly, a patriotic action adventure about Chinese test pilots, nose-dived by 75% as it fell from a $40 million first place debut to a $11.2 million third-placed second flap. Its cumulative after two weekends is $77.3 million, according to weekend data from consultancy Artisan Gateway.
Love for Chinese romance All These Years also quickly dissipated. It fell from a third-placed opening weekend of $18.7 million to a fourth ranked second weekend of $3.8 million and a 10-day cumulative of $36.7 million.
Holding up significantly better was Chinese-made comedy road trip movie Godspeed, which held on to second place with a second weekend haul of $15.3 million. After ten days on release, it has amassed $99.1 million.
After a thin 2022 for Hollywood import titles in China, the current year represents a return to more normalized business dealings. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was approved for release in China several weeks ago, enabling a properly-prepared marketing campaign. And it benefited from a simultaneous release with that in North America and many international territories.
Its debut weekend was the strongest opening by a Hollywood film in 2023 and the second biggest of the past 16 months behind Avatar: The Way of Water. And Imax reported that Guardians earned $5.6 million, or 19% of its China total, on its screens. But half a dozen Chinese films have had bigger (holiday-assisted) openings. And two Japanese animation titles Suzume and The First Slam Dunk have had stronger non-holiday debuts in China this year.
With the exception of Avatar 2, Hollywoods return to China is proving to be a slow-burn process, rather than an overnight comeback. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 seems unlikely to reach the heights of its franchise predecessors.
Chinese ticketing agency Maoyan is forecasting that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will achieve a $74 million total over the course of its run in China. That compares with $86.3 million for the first Guardians movie in 2014 and the $101 million made by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in 2017.
Nationwide aggregate box office over the weekend slumped back to $62.6 million after the $120 million May Day highs. Artisan Gateway calculates that Chinas box office for the year to date stands at $2.91 billion. That is 36% better than a desperate 2022, but 20% below the same point during 2019.