Marvel’s ‘Guardians’ protect lead at weekend box office (NYSE:DIS)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (NYSE:DIS) added $60.5M in its second weekend in theaters, holding on to more than half its opening-weekend business and easily leading a field of also-rans at the box office.

The film, the third in the Marvel franchise, dropped 49% from last weekend and brought its domestic cumulative gross to $213.2M, according to Comscore data.

And it was set to keep pace with the second weekend of one of 2022’s biggest hits, Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (DIS), which grossed $61.7M in the comparable interval.

Meanwhile, The Super Mario Bros. Movie (NASDAQ:CMCSA) added to its 2023-best totals, with another $13M over its sixth weekend to serve as the second-best performer. The film, based on iconic Nintendo (OTCPK:NTDOY) game characters, has a domestic six-week total of $536M and a global take so far of $1.21B, Comscore noted.

The best of several smaller films opening was romantic comedy sequel Book Club: The Next Chapter (CMCSA), which drew $6.5M, good enough for third place ahead of Evil Dead Rise (NASDAQ:WBD), with $3.7M, and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (NYSE:LGF.A) (LGF.B), with $2.5M.

Notably, since summer season means limited stays for blockbusters on large-format screens, Guardians 3 led IMAX (IMAX) to a $12M weekend worldwide, for a cumulative total of $43.6M on IMAX screens, Comscore noted. (Next weekend, Fast X (CMCSA) will take over 1,548 IMAX screens in 82 countries.)

Cinema tickers: AMC Entertainment (AMC); Cineworld (OTCPK:CNNWQ); Cinemark (CNK); (IMAX); Marcus (MCS); Reading International (RDI); Cineplex (CGX:CA); National CineMedia (NCMI).