'Guardians of the Galaxy' has a record-setting debut
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Molly Driscoll Staff Writer
Soon after Marvel Studios announced at its Comic-Con panel that it had already greenlit a sequel to its new film 鈥淕uardians of the Galaxy,鈥� the movie set a box office record with its debut weekend, scoring the best August debut ever.聽
鈥淕uardians鈥� grossed $94 million over the weekend in North America, according to the , outgrossing the debut of every other 2014 summer movie except for the recent film 鈥淭ransformers: Age of Extinction.鈥�
Marvel鈥檚 movie 鈥淕uardians鈥� follows an unusual group of various space denizens, including Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), who likes to call himself Star-Lord; Gamora (Zoe Saldana), a green-skinned assassin; Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), a strong superhuman; Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), a talking raccoon; and Groot (Vin Diesel), a tree-like creature whose sole phrase is 鈥淚 am Groot.鈥� The movie is directed by James Gunn, who, according to the , is already on board to direct the sequel.聽
鈥淕uardians鈥� was also largely well-received critically and currently holds a score of 76 out of 100 on the review aggregator website . Associated Press reviewer Jake Coyle noted that the film 鈥渉as a welcome, slightly self-mocking tone that dares to suggest intergalactic battles over orbs might actually be a tad silly鈥� and called the casting of Pratt 鈥渋nspired,鈥� though Coyle found the comedy 鈥渨eak鈥� and wrote that 鈥渢he film is terribly overstuffed.鈥�
Pratt expressed his happiness over the movie鈥檚 big box office opening on , writing, 鈥淭hank you everyone watching聽#鈥嶨uardiansOfTheGalaxy鈥爐his weekend! We're all so happy that people are loving it. Stay for the credits, not just the awesome post credit sequence but to read the hundreds if not thousands of names responsible for bringing it to the screen.聽#鈥巊谤补迟别蹿耻濒鈥赌澛�
Gunn told the Daily Beast how he envisioned the world of 鈥淕uardians.鈥澛�
鈥淔or me, it was really about bringing this bright, bold, colorful, and brazen world that had grit and specific details to it and would reclaim the colors of the 鈥�50s and 鈥�60s science fiction movies 鈥� movies like 鈥楩orbidden Planet鈥� 鈥� but would also be edgy and postmodern,鈥� he said.
