Box Office

From ew, Guardians of the Galaxy claimed the No. 1 spot once more this weekend with an estimated $10.16 million as it makes its way towards the coveted $300 million mark, while the faith-based musical drama The Identical (Cinema Score: B)—the only new wide release—failed to catch on in any significant way, opening in 11th place with a shoddy $1.91 million. The rest of the top five were all holdovers, earning in or around $5 million.

If things seem somewhat unexciting at the box office this weekend, your eyes and untouched movie dollars aren’t deceiving you: It was basically planned to be that way. “This is the no man’s land between the end of the summer season and the start of Oscar season and the big holiday movie season,” Rentrak’s Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian told EW earlier this week. “This is just one of those weekends that are always expected to be slow. It’s nothing to be alarmed about, the sky is not falling, it’s just post-Labor Day weekend and we have to live through it.”

In the top spot, Guardians of the Galaxy‘s $10.16 million take brings the domestic total to a staggering $294.57 million and its global total to $586 million, and it still has yet to open in Japan (next weekend), China (Oct. 10), and Italy (Oct. 22). Guardians has now exceeded the global grosses of its fellow “first-timers” in the Marvel universe includingIron Man ($585 million), Thor ($449 million), and Captain America: The First Avenger($371 million).

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles picked up over the weekend to take second place with an estimated $6.5 million from 3,273 locations and are looking at a cool $174.65 million domestic total, while the YA tearjerker If I Stay, which only cost $11 million to produce, earned another $5.75 million in its third weekend in theaters. Fox’s Let’s Be Cops and Relativity’s The November Man rounded out the top five with $5.4 million and $4.2 million weekends, respectively.

Here are the top five:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy — $10.16 million ($294.57 million domestic total)
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — $6.5 million (174.65 million domestic total)
3. If I Stay — $5.75 million ($39.66 million domestic total)
4. Let’s Be Cops — $5.4 million ($66.59 million domestic total)
5. The November Man — $4.2 million ($17.87 million domestic total)

The Identical, meanwhile took the 11th place spot (sandwiched between Lucy and The Expendables 3) with an estimated $1.91 million from 1,966 locations. Freestyle Releasing, who ushered God’s Not Dead to a $9.2 million opening in just 780 theaters in March, hoped to capitalize on the same faith-based fervor that helped that film reach $60.8 million domestically. With a B Cinema Score and dismal reviews (4 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), it seems unlikely that the Ashley Judd and Ray Liotta drama will pick up speed in the coming weeks.