Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 began its international rollout this past weekend, grossing $101 million from 37 markets, and helping to propel the Marvel Cinematic Universe beyond the $11 billion mark at the global box office.
Since its launch with Iron Man in 2008, the MCU’s fifteen releases have pulled in a combined $11.02 billion, and will likely surpass $11.5 billion once Guardians finishes up its run. And with Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok both incoming this year, the MCU is only going to extend its lead as the highest-grossing movie franchise of all time.
In terms of competition, the Harry Potter series currently sits in second place with $8.5 billion, although the Star Wars saga – currently on $7.6 billion – will presumably leapfrog that with the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi in December.
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Set to the backdrop of ‘Awesome Mixtape #2,’ Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues the team’s adventures as they traverse the outer reaches of the cosmos. The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mysteries of Peter Quill’s true parentage. Old foes become new allies and fan-favorite characters from the classic comics will come to our heroes’ aid as the Marvel cinematic universe continues to expand.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is scheduled for release on April 28th 2017 in the UK and on May 5th in the States, with director James Gunn reuniting with returning cast members Chris Pratt (Star-Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax), Bradley Cooper (Rocket), Vin Diesel (Groot), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Michael Rooker (Yondu), Glenn Close (Nova Prime), Sean Gunn (Kraglin) and Laura Haddock (Meredith Quill) alongside new additions Pom Klementieff (Oldboy) as Mantis, Elizabeth Debicki (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) as Ayesha, Kurt Russell (The Hateful Eight) as Ego the Living Planet, Chris Sullivan (The Drop) as Taserface, Tommy Flanagan (Sons of Anarchy) as Tullk and Sylvester Stallone (Creed) as Stakar.
