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GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE Smashes Expectations Opening Weekend

GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE Smashes Expectations Opening Weekend

By Movieguide® Contributor

GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE enjoyed an incredible opening weekend, bringing in roughly $80 million domestically.

Critics projected the movie to bring in roughly $50 million before its launch. As is common with other Godzilla movies, GODZILLA X KONG was even more popular overseas, grossing $114 million across 64 territories.

“The film feels like a cinematic event,” said producer Mary Parent. “It delivers in fresh ways we haven’t seen from these characters.”

The movie follows a budding relationship between Godzilla and King Kong as they work together to defeat a newly discovered threat. Along the way, new stories about these titans’ histories come to light. A portion of Movieguide®’s review reads:

GODZILLA X KONG takes a while to expose the new villain and what’s really happening in Hollow Earth. However, there’s lots of exciting action before those revelations occur, and afterwards. GODZILLA X KONG has a strong moral worldview. The story’s goals are to protect human civilization and restore a fallen kingdom. GODZILLA X KONG also promotes the love between a mother and her adopted daughter. It’s marred, however, by lots of mostly light foul language and intense, scary violence featuring giant monsters.

GODZILLA X KONG’s success highlights the theater industry’s return to normal after an exceptionally slow January and February. Coming into March, BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE was the highest-grossing movie of the year, collecting just under $100 million. Since then, however, DUNE PART: TWO and KUNG FU PANDA 4 leapfrogged to first and second, grossing $252 million and $151 million respectively. GODZILLA X KONG is now hot on their tales.

The success of these movies early in the year is critical for the industry, as the movie business is largely momentum-based. The success of summer blockbusters largely depends on the success carried over from the spring.

“Every movie counts, and the importance of each film’s performance carries a lot of weight in terms of moving the needle,” said senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “The combination of DUNE, KUNG FU PANDA, GHOSTBUSTERS and now GODZILLA has shown the power of a few key releases to turn the box office tide in a relatively short amount of time.”

Last year’s box office surpassed $9 billion with a last-minute boost from WONKA, making it the strongest year since 2020. However, heading into 2024, experts predicted the box office to barely surpass $8 billion, a disappointing regress. This backstep is largely fueled by delays due to last year’s dual strikes.

However, studios have since added tentpole movies to this year’s lineup, leaving some optimistic that 2024 could beat expectations.

Movieguide® previously reported:

While the entertainment industry still fights to recover from last year’s writers’ and actors’ strikes, Cineplex CEO Ellis Jacob believes 2024 will be a good year for theaters and theatergoers.

2024’s box office has had a bleak start. The most popular movie released so far this year is the MEAN GIRLS remake, which grossed just under $70 million domestically. However, as multiple movies later in the year have blockbuster potential, Jacob believes 2024 will be a good year for theaters.

“We are starting to see product coming back,” Jacob told The Hollywood Reporter. “Those are positive that point me in the right direction.”

He was encouraged by the announcement of two more major movies coming to theaters this year: MOANA 2 and MONKEY MAN. MOANA 2’s story was originally set to be a TV show before Disney turned it into a movie. MONKEY MAN was originally slated to release on Netflix before Universal acquired it to release in theaters.


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