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UPDATE, FRIDAY: Zooming in 29 offshore markets, Disney/Marvel‘s _Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2_ has amassed $22.3M at the international box office through Thursday. After bowing with $6.6M

on Tuesday in just three hubs (which each had holidays), _GOTG2_ moved into a further nine on Wednesday — notably France — and then 17 more yesterday (including Germany and Brazil). The

scores are showing the ragtag space family running considerably ahead of the original _Guardians Of The Galaxy_, as well as other Marvel Cinematic Universe sequels, _Captain America: The

Winter Soldier_ and _Thor: The Dark World_. AUSTRALIA currently leads offshore with $6.2M after bowing on Tuesday’s Anzac holiday. FRANCE, which chimed in on Wednesday, is at $2.7M; ITALY

(also a Tuesday bow) has plunked down $2M so far; Germany joined the fun yesterday with $1.5M; and Brazil also got in on the action Thursday with $1.2M. Those are the Top 5 markets on the

James Gunn-helmed pic thus far. The initial numbers have been somewhat bolstered by the Australia/New Zealand and Italy holiday Tuesdays, and the position versus comps will begin to clarify

as more markets experience regular play. In the same hubs where _GOTG2_ is debuting this weekend, the first film grossed around $65M at current exchange rates. _Thor: The Dark World_ bowed

to $85.4M and _Captain America: The Winter Soldier_ to $67.6M, also at today’s exchange. This one will go higher than all three (and it’s notable that in some markets, it’s opened bigger

than _Captain America: Civil War_). WATCH ON DEADLINE Here’s a look at how yesterday’s play breaks down: GERMANY‘s opening day was $1.5M at No. 1 with 66% market share for the 2nd biggest

start of the year, behind _Fate Of The Furious_. That was 29% ahead of _Guardians Of The Galaxy_, 21% ahead of _The Avengers_ and 30% ahead of _Captain America: Civil War_. BRAZIL‘s launch

was $1.2M for No. 1 and a huge +95% on _GOTG_. The NETHERLANDS blasted off to $500K, the No. 1 start of 2017 and the 2nd highest MCU opening day ever behind only _Civil War_ (+83% vs

_GOTG_). TAIWAN grossed $600K for +78% on _GOTG_; HONG KONG was $300K at 24% over _GOTG_; and SINGAPORE also rocked in with $300K for 14% above _GOTG_. AUSTRIA took in $200K at No. 1; 2nd

biggest MCU debut behind _Iron Man 3_; +51% on _GOTG_. There are another host of markets opening today, including the UK, Spain and Mexico. We’ll have an update on those tomorrow. PREVIOUS,

WEDNESDAY: Disney/Marvel’s _Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2_ rocketed into its first three markets on Tuesday, taking advantage of local holidays to get the ball rolling at the international

box office. The total from Australia, Italy and New Zealand is $6.6M. Pressing play on the second Awesome Mixtape in AUSTRALIA, the James Gunn-helmed film bowed at No. 1 to an estimated

$2.9M. That’s the second-biggest opening day ever for a Marvel Cinematic Universe release — behind only _The Avengers_ — and is more than three times bigger than the start of the original

_Guardians of the Galaxy_ (which debuted on a non-holiday in 2014). Adding in successful Monday night previews ahead of Tuesday’s Anzac holiday, the Oz cume is $4.5M. In ITALY, _GOTG2_ also

was No. 1, this time on Liberation Day, with an estimated $1.4M. The launch is the third-best for an MCU title and was more than triple the openings of _GOTG_ and _Doctor Strange_ (again,

non-holiday opening days). It also was 29% ahead of _Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice_, 23% ahead of _Captain America: Civil War_, 15% ahead of _Avengers: Age of Ultron_ and 1% above

_Suicide Squad_, none of which bowed on a holiday. NEW ZEALAND, also celebrating Anzac, scored $400K for the top opening day of 2017 and the third-highest opening day ever for the MCU. It’s

bigger than both _Ultron_ and _Civil War_ (the non-holiday caveat stands here too). With Monday night previews, the cume rises to $700K. The ragtag bunch of Guardians — which includes Chris

Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper and now Kurt Russell — is looking at a launch weekend internationally in the $100M range, and some see higher. While the initial

numbers out of the three markets above are extremely encouraging, Disney reminds us that they all were holiday plays. _GOTG2_ will be in 37 material markets this weekend. Today it adds

France along with Belgium, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Domestic and the rest of the world, including China but not yet Japan, catch up the following

frame.