Marvel Studios’ latest superhero installment, Guardians of the Galaxy, has made its way to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) top 250 at #34 within 3 days after its initial release on August 1, 2014. With an average rating of 8.5, it has the same ranking as Saving Private Ryan, Spirited Away, The Intouchables, Memento, and Terminator 2.
Interestingly, the only other top-rating superhero movie, DC’s The Dark Knight Rises, also scores an 8.5 on IMDB. Batman Begins and X-Men: Days of Future Past are way below in the hundreds with a score of 8.3.
Critics over at Rotten Tomatoes have GOTC certified fresh with 92% critic rating and 96% audience rating. This, however, only places it at #75 under the Science Fiction & Fantasy genre. Compare that to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight with its 94% critic / 94% audience rating, The Avengers (92% critic / 91% audience), and Iron Man (93% critic / 91% audience). Unfortunately this is not enough for the film to even place at the top 100 best movies of all time on RT.
One more thing.
On Metacritic, Guardians of the Galaxy has an average critic score of 76, while users score it a 9.1. This places it within Metacritic’s top 10 all time based on user score.
In terms of sales, the film grossed $94,000,000 in the USA on its opening weekend. This pegs Marvel: GOTG at #32 for highest sales of all time on an opening weekend. These figures are still very far from top openers, The Avengers (#1) and Iron Man 3 (#2), both also from Marvel Studios. The estimated budget for producing the film is $170,000,000.
Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the biggest blockbuster movies of 2014. Because, well, Dave Bautista.