Guardians Opens Up A New 'Galaxy"

Guardians of the Galaxy has been a highly anticipated ever since the project was announced. Ever since an August 1st release date was attached to it, I predicted that this would be an awesome debut spot for a largely unproven property. Awesome was a huge understatement as GotG earned over $94M at the Box Office over the weekend. Guardians not only scored an August Box Office Record, it raised a few questions about the future of Marvel Studios and the Box Office Biz as we know it:

1.  Has Marvel has become a bigger brand than the individual character properties themselves?

Maybe not. One could argue that movie goers pay to see the heroes on the screen AFTER the logo pops up in the beginning. Touche. But it cannot be denied that Guardians of the Galaxy has been a forgotten Marvel property for decades, despite an effort to revive the comic during the turn of the century. The marketing effort for this movie was pretty compelling, but nothing compared to the name recognition that Marvel’s more popular characters has going into their film debuts. GotG’s big weekend may be more a reflection of the trust in Marvel’s brand than the cult following that existed. 

2. Are we gonna be tweakin’ for NINE MONTHS without Marvel? 

Well, Big Hero 6 is just around the corner from Walt Disney Animation. Disney’s first direct collaboration with Marvel on the big screen should be a smash hit! As far as live action projects, after seeing 9 films from Marvel Studios in 6 years, this slight hiatus may be what is needed to build momentum toward Avengers: Rise Of Ultron. The rest of this release year frankly doesn’t impress me outside of a few projects, but, in case you haven’t taken a peek at Box Office Mojo’s Coming Soon section, 2015 is going to be packed to the brim with intriguing films.  So, I think that our Marvel jones will be sufficiently kept in check until May 1st. 

3. Is Marvel going to do more projects in Phase 3 that are closed-ended like GotG?

Not necessarily. As we have seen with the first two phases of Marvel Studios, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been built largely on the Avengers Initiative (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and The Hulk).  Guardians seemed to exist largely outside of the events of the rest of the MCU up to this point, but it could mean that there is a new storyline on the horizon. Perhaps this film is the first chapter of a new book in the MCU that will be connected to future projects like Ant-Man and rumored projects like Doctor Strange. 

4. Will we see a sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy?

The team of Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Drax the Destroyer, and Groot are all rich characters with compelling origin stories, so I don’t see why not. I am particularly interested in seeing if Rocket and Groot’s story will ever be put on screen. Rocket’s beginnings on Half-World as a genetically engineered orderly on a planet for the insane is definitely worth a flashback (see, doesn’t that have you interested already?). 

5. Will we see the Guardians of the Galaxy team up with The Avengers?

The two superhero groups last teamed up in the animated series Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The cinematic thread between the Guardians and the Avengers is, of course, Thanos. He had a slightly more prominent role in GotG than the end of credits cameo he made in The Avengers. Slowly but surely, the indomitable one with the irrigable chin should emerge to main-villain status, drawing out the two hero groups for an epic team-up on the silver screen.

6. Will the beginning of August become a destination release window now?

If you ask me, absolutely! This is pretty much the last date before school starts for some people, so why not end summer with a bang? In the last few years, we have seen some pretty good projects like Rise of the Planet of the Apes and 2 Guns have debuted in August. This is the perfect spot for an unproven commodity to shine with minimal competition. Like a second first week in May! However, I doubt that the next Guardians film will be an August release after its amazing output this past weekend. 

Stevie Neil is a contributor to Essence of Zen and can also be found blogging at Stevie Cinema (www.steviecinema.wordpress.com)