'Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3' Hits $114M At Domestic Box Office During Weekend Debut

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" kicked off the summer movie season with $114 million in ticket sales at the domestic box office during its opening weekend.

Since debuting in theaters Friday, James Gunn's final installment in Marvel's "Guardians" trilogy, which stars Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord, has earned a total global haul of $282.1 million, $168.1 million of which came from 52 markets at the international box office, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

China led with $28.1 million in ticket sales. It was followed by the U.K. with $14.7 million, South Korea with $13.6 million, Mexico with $13 million, and France with $8.2 million.

"Guardians 3" unexpectedly topped China's box office despite the country's hostility toward Hollywood movies and preference for local content. However, the third movie's China debut is much less than the $49 million debut of the last installment, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," in 2017.

Gunn's final movie with Marvel — before he is slated to release various content from rival DC Studios — now ranks as the second-biggest opening weekend of this year, following "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," which opened to $146 million domestically, according to Variety.

Premium Large Format (PLF) auditoriums such as Imax and Dolby covered 40% of the film's opening weekend ticket sales, while Imax brought $10.7 million in North America and $25 million across the globe.

"We expect the strong audience response to yield a long, successful run at the box office," Imax CEO Richard Gelfond said, according to Variety.

The coming weeks will be crucial for "Guardians 3's" ticket sales as "Fast X" — the 10th film in the iconic "Fast & Furious" series — and Disney's "The Little Mermaid" are scheduled to hit theaters later this month.

Marvel's Phase Five has received mixed results at the box office. "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," which didn't end on a high note, failed to reach its $500 million worldwide target in February.

But some have predicted that "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" could break records before it leaves theaters. Recently, it received a "grade A" on CinemaScore and an 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The first "Guardians" ended its theatrical run with $333 million domestically and $773 million globally. The second movie surpassed the first, garnering $389 million domestically and $863 million globally.

Following its theatrical run, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" will be released on Disney+ and other digital formats, as well as physical home video formats such as DVD/Blu-Ray/4K at a later date.