@k4tzm4n: Sorry, k4tzm4n, I respect your work and articles here on CV but I'm going to have to disagree.
Just because the general audience weren't aware of who the Guardians of the Galaxy are does not mean that this movie was a risk to Marvel Studios. I have yet to see it, so I'm not going to pretend I have a great understanding of the movie's content, but everything I've heard about GOTG has lead me to believe that it was bound to do just as well as any of the other MCU films.
Marvel is an established, extremely popular name brand and at this point in time, any MCU movie will succeed at the box office. It's been that way ever since The Avengers. They have made terrible movies succeed far beyond expectations (such as Iron Man 3) so it's not all that surprising that they can make a movie with unknown characters succeed. The fact that the characters were unknowns to most people was easily solved with the heavy marketing (let alone the fact that a large amount of the general audience had no idea who most Marvel characters were before they appeared on film) and almost all hardcore comic book fans will watch MCU films, whether they are experts on the franchise featured or not.
Another point if like to make is that having a successful film with characters that no one has been introduced to before is far from a new concept. That describes pretty much every successful film ever made that is not based on a preexisting franchise. An important part of storytelling in any medium is about introducing your characters and giving them development. Any professional writer can do this, it's not very hard.
And before I press post, I'd like to add that I really enjoy all of the Marvel movies (with the exception of The Incredible Hulk, Thor: The Dark World, and the Iron Man sequels). I'm not hating, trolling, or bashing MCU films. I just wouldn't call any of them risky.
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