WIll Guardians Of The Galaxy Hold On To Be The Top-Grossing Movie Of 2014?

They might be a team of misfits, but it looks like the Guardians of the Galaxy might end 2014 in first place.

More from Movies

• James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy casts more major DC characters
• New Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom trailer pushes Arthur to his limits
• 7 actors who could replace Ezra Miller as The Flash in the DC Universe
• Masters of the Universe reboot’s new domain could be at Amazon’s Prime Video Streamer
• James Gunn gives interesting update of Superman and Supergirl movies at DC Studios

If you ask Siri to define “successful beyond its makers’ wildest dreams,” she’ll probably tell you she’s doing a web search. If not, she may use Guardians of the Galaxy as an example. Clearly, Marvel had faith in it finding success despite starring characters previously unknown to most of the general public, but there’s no way it could have expected the movie would end up beating everything else at the box office this year.

With all of its serious holiday challengers already released, all it has to do now is hold on. Guardians ended its theatrical run with a $332.5 million U.S. box office haul. The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies is currently on pace to make around $270 million, so it should be no real threat. The movie I expected might pose a serious challenge is The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part I. That film currently sits at an estimated $289.2 million after opening softer than expected, and it’s been out for a month.

Mockingjay beat Guardians out of the block and is ahead of its pace after four full weeks, but it’s also falling off faster than the Marvel movie. During the first week of September, GotG did something rare these days and actually made more money than it did the week before despite being in theaters for five weeks. The Hunger Games‘ penultimate installment will end its fifth week on Christmas, and while it could get a little holiday bump, it’s looking like a film that is following the more typical pattern of falling off week after week. That means it should clear $300 million, but I don’t think it’ll have enough staying power to take the 2014 crown.

It’s worth noting that this was a weak year at the very top of the charts, as three movies cleared $400 million in 2013, including the previous Hunger Games installment, Iron Man 3 and Frozen. Even the fourth-place flick, Despicable Me 2, would have won the race this year. Still, this was a good year for super heroes in theaters, as comic book movies will likely end up first, fourth (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), eighth (X-Men: Days of Future Past) and 10th (The Amazing Spider-Man 2).

Next year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron should blow all of them out of the water, but in a few weeks, Guardians of the Galaxy is probably going to be able to take a much-deserved victory lap. And Marvel, if you’d like to re-release it to theaters to celebrate in January, I’d go see it again.

(all stats via Box Office Mojo)

Next: Where is Guardians among the highest-grossing super hero movies?