“Guardians Vol. 3′ and ‘Super Mario Bros.’ again top box office

Several new movies hit theaters across the country this weekend, from a relaxing trip to Italy with Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Diane Keaton and Mary Steenburgen to a Ben Affleck-starring crime thriller. However, the top two spots were once again claimed by Marvel and Mario.

In its second weekend, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3″ added $60.5 million from North American theaters, according to studio estimates on Sunday. That’s a slight drop of 49% from its opening, which is rare for big superhero movies that tend to be overstuffed and have big second-weekend drops of 60% or more. As Marvel’s smallest drop since the start of the pandemic, it also answers the question of “superhero fatigue” some asked last weekend. Including $91.9 million from international exhibitions, “Vol. 3″ has already grossed over $528.8 million worldwide.

Second place went to the movie “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” with $13 million in its sixth weekend, bringing its domestic total to just $536 million. Families with younger children have had almost no other choice in theaters since Mario hit the theaters, resulting in repeat showings and continued dominance at the box office, where it still plays in 3,800 locations domestically. Globally, it’s at $1.2 billion.

With Chris Pratt in the lead roles of chart-topping films, as Star Lord in ‘Guardians’ and the voice of Mario, discussions have started about how much of the draw is star power versus brand power.

It was a particularly busy weekend for new movies, opening both wide and limited across all genres and qualities. “Book Club: The Next Chapter” fared best on the charts with $6.5 million from 3,508 locations. The sequel, released by Focus Features over Mother’s Day weekend, reunites the cast with director Bill Holderman and his co-writer Erin Sims. Audiences were overwhelmingly female (77 and over 45 (66%) and the hope is that there will be a Mother’s Day push and decent bookings for the $20 million production. Bigger audiences usually don’t rush on the weekend of The first film opened to $13.5 million in 2018 and went on to earn over $104 million.

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Meanwhile, Robert Rodriguez’s “Hypnotic” is bombing. The mystery starring Affleck as a detective whose daughter goes missing grossed $65 million. It opened the weekend to poor reviews (32% on Rotten Tomatoes) and limited marketing from distributor Ketchup Entertainment, earning just $2.4 million from 2,118 locations.

There was also plenty of competition on the home screens, from a Michael J. Fox documentary on Apple TV+ to the Jennifer Lopez actioner “The Mother” on Netflix. “Air,” which is still in the top 10 after six weekends in theaters, also debuted on Prime Video.

Things will pick up considerably next weekend when “Fast X” enters the summer box office race, followed by the live-action “The Little Mermaid” on May 26.