These Kaiju Are Not Giving Up Their Box Office Thrones
Good luck to anyone trying to take on the kings of monsters at the box office; Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is sitting comfortably on its throne. The kaiju film held on to the top spot despite recent releases, proving that the lure of big monsters getting into fisticuffs with one another is still strong.
Godzilla x Kong premiered on March 25, 2024, in the United States, pulling in a whopping $80 million upon its debut. This is the fifth film in the MonsterVerse franchise from Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros. and potentially the last of the franchise. With the trailer promising a team-up between Godzilla and Kong against some truly terrifying foes, monster fans have rushed to the cinema to catch sight of these battling beasts.
After a pretty impressive opening, the film remained at the top over the last weekend, despite the release of two new titles. Though ticket sales dropped 60%—a normal drop for a movie of this size—it still stood tall above the competition. In its second week across 3,948 theaters, Godzilla x Kong added $31.7 million to its total which currently stands at $132 million domestically and $361 million globally.
That last figure already puts the film in good stead to overtake one of the MonsterVerse’s more disappointing outings, 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters which only raked in $387 million worldwide. It still has a way to go though if it wants to overtake the franchise’s best box office performance, which was 2017’s Kong: Skull Island which pulled in $566 million worldwide.
Two new films tried to tangle with the giants this weekend, Dev Patel’s phenomenal Monkey Man, which earned second place at the box office with $10.1 million from 3,029 venues, and Disney and 20th Century’s The First Omen coming in fourth place having made $8.4 million over the weekend. Both these films were originally made for streaming but were given theatrical releases after it was believed they had enough draw to get people into theaters. The figures for both, though, probably aren’t what the industry hoped for, as theaters across the country are struggling to get bums in seats. Currently, box office revenues are behind 10% compared to last year.
In third place is Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and going bust may just be what happens to this franchise given how dismally it has done at the box office. The film has only generated $88.8 million at the domestic box office and $138 million worldwide, and with a price tag of $100 million, we don’t see how the studio can justify another one.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
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