Legendary and Warner Bros‘ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire stomped all over expectations with an $80M opening, the second best start of the year so far, $2.5M behind the $82.5M opening of Legendary’s other big pic this spring, Dune: Part Two. No one saw this coming. As we told you heading into the movie, the fifth Monsterverse titles gets the Legendary series across $2 billion in its domestic opening alone. International delivered $114M for a great $194M global start.
EntTelligence reports that GxK is expected to pull in more than 5.5M admissions this weekend, the most attended opening weekend for any movie YTD. The Adam Wingard directed movie, not including preview night, commanded 56% of all foot traffic and 89% of all premium format admissions. Imax and PLF drove 38% of the gross with 3D responsible for 19%.
This is easily the biggest opening ever for Wingard as we wonder what he’ll do next: is it Face Off or Thundercats?
How did Warners pull this off with GxK? While the movie is playing everywhere, there was an enormous turnout of Hispanic and Latino moviegoers who repped 35% of the crowd. In addition, there was a bespoke campaign masterminded by Warner Bros Marketing Czar Josh Goldstine that excited various demos across billboards, exhibition in theater materials and trailers.
Beamed Warner Bros Domestic Distribution Boss Jeff Goldstein, “This is a huge, fun Easter movie for the whole family. A big shoutout to Legendary, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Co-Chiefs Mike De Luca and Pamela Abdy for supporting the date and Warner Bros. Worldwide Marketing President Josh Goldstine for an extraordinary campaign.”
For a fifthquel to bounce back the franchise, GxK being the second best start in the Legendary Monsterverse after Godzilla‘s $93.1M ten years ago, is pretty remarkable. Also there’s a similar boom going on here with this Legendary property ala Dune Part Two. That franchise had its first chapter’s grosses siphoned by a pandemic day-and-date HBO Max streaming debut. Despite bringing audiences back in the Easter 2021, you could say that Godzilla v Kong‘s grosses too were also impacted by a streaming day-and-date plan, and the pure theatrical of it all with GxK clearly underscores the value of the IP on the big screen, and moviegoers’ preference to see such monster mashing in no other place but a theater.
GxK for the most part played evenly throughout the day per EntTelligence with 12% attending before 1PM, 34% during the 1PM-5PM daypart, 31% between 5PM-8PM and 23% after 8PM.
1.) Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Leg/WB) 3,861 theaters, Fri $37M Sat $26.6M Sun $16.4M 3-day$80M/Wk 1
2.) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Sony) 4,345 theaters, Fri $5.5M (-65%), Sat $6.3M Sun $3.87M 3-day $15.7M(-65%), Total $73.4M/Wk 2
Austin Butler in ‘Dune: Part Two’ Warner Bros
3.) Dune: Part Two(Leg/WB) 3,136 theaters (-301), Fri $3.6M (-20%) Sat $4.7M Sun $2.8M 3-day $11.1M(-37%)/Total $252.3M/Wk 5Fueling the sequel’s hold was the retention of Imax screens which grossed $1.65M taking the Imax domestic haul for the Denis Villeneuve movie to $62M; the eighth highest Imax domestic release ever.
4.) Kung Fu Panda 4 (Uni/DWA) 3,582 (-223) theaters, Fri $3.97M (-3%), Sat $3.9M Sun $2.35M 3-day $10.2M(-38%), Total $151.6M/Wk 4
5.) Immaculate (NEON) 2,362 (+8) theaters, Fri $1.1M (-44%) Sat $1.25M Sun $875K 3-day $3.26M (–39%)/Total $11.1M/ Wk 2
6.) Arthur the King (LG) 2,525 (-478) theaters, Fri $784K Sat $995K Sun $621K 3-day $2.4M (-43%), Total $19.06M/Wk 3
7.) Late Night With the Devil (IFC) 1442 (+408) theaters (IFC), Fri $773K Sat $862K Sun $569K 3-day $2.2M(-21%), Total $6.2M/Wk 2“Late Night With the Devil continues show the power of quality films in the marketplace defying horror norms by only dropping 22% and adding four hundred screens due to increased demand. We are proud to say this is now IFC’s fifth highest grossing film,” says Head of AMC Films’ Group, Scott Shooman.
8.) Tillu Square (Prath) 450 theaters, Fri $1M Sat $515K Sun $355K 3-day $1.87M/Wk 1
9.) Crew (FunAsia) 486 theaters, Fri $604K Sun $530K Sun $366K 3-day $1.5M/Wk 1
10.) Imaginary (LG) 1,956 (-557) theaters Fri $506K Sat $564K Sun $330K 3-day $1.4M (-50%) Total $26.2M/Wk 4
Notables:
In the Land of Saints and Sinners (Samuel Goldwyn) 896 theaters, Fri $378K Sat $388K Sun $290K 3-day $1.056M/Wk 1
Cabrini (Angel Studios) 1,345 (-420) theaters, Fri $539K Sat $279K Sun $220,7K 3-day $1.037M (-28%), Total $18.1M/Wk 4
Aadujeevitham (Prime Media) 200 theaters, Fri $180K Sat $200K Sun $130K 3-day $510K /Total $625K Wk 1
Asphalt City (RSA) 298 theaters, Fri $54K Sat $46K Sun $30K 3-day $130,6K/Wk 1
Wicked Little Letters (SPC) 5 theaters, 3-day $87,9K/$17,5K per theater/Wk 1
This is how a great box office weekend should be. A studio goes into the frame expecting ‘X’, and they wind up with a substantially higher ‘Y’. It was definitely a good Friday for Legendary and Warner Bros with more walk-up business than expected as Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire posted a $37M first day (plus $10M previews)putting on the path to a $75M opening weekend. Per Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak, 57% of the audience bought their tickets same-day. There is a path to a bigger weekend, so it won’t be shocking if it hits $80M. Also, the sequel nabbed an A- CinemaScore, which is the second best CinemaScore for a Monsterverse movie after 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, which was also directed by Adam Wingard.
Godzilla x Kong‘s weekend is still the second best U.S./Canada start for a Monsterverse, but also the fifth best Easter weekend opening ever after Warner Bros’ Batman v. Superman ($181M), Universal/Illumination’s Super Mario Bros Movie ($166.4M), Universal’s Furious 7 ($161.2M) and Uni’s The Fate of the Furious ($107.3M).
There’s no denying that Easter weekend is a very rich one at the box office, definitely bigger than Christmas weekend since the holiday will always fall on a Sunday, the lesser of the three moviegoing days. PostTrak exits reported that of those who watched Gvk, many of them were infrequent moviegoers, i.e. 26% go to the cinema ever other month or so, while 22% attend a few times a year or less. Warners has been here before, not just with Batman v. Superman and Godzilla vs. Kong, but the Clash of the Titans movies, Ready Player One, Shazam! and even The Matrix. Lots here for Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav to be happy about as Warner Bros has the top two highest movies of the year and is dominating the major studio domestic marketshare with 30% fueled by Legendary’s Dune: Part Two and GxK, as well as Warner’s own Wonka.
62% of the audience was led by men with Hispanic and Latino audiences showing up huge at 34%, followed by 31% Caucasian, 18% Asian/other and 17% Black. Sixty-seven percent of GxK‘s crowd were over 25 while 62% were under 35. The under 25 set at 33% gave the Adam Wingard directed movie an A.
GxK is playing big across the nation, but gigantic in the South, South Central and West with the AMC Burbank its highest grossing theater stateside with close to $83K so far. IMAX and the PLF screens are driving 38% of the gross with 3D accounting for 19%.
Other jelly beans for GxK: On PostTrak, 96% said the movie either met or exceeded their expectations. Forty-eight percent said they went to the movie because it look fun and exciting, while another 45% said it was part of a franchise they loved. Seventy-two percent want to see a sequel. What influenced moviegoers to go see GxK: 17% said the online trailer, 14% said it was the in-theater trailer, 14% credited social media, while another 14% said they were encouraged by friends and family.
GvK is leading all titles at the weekend box office to a $134.7M total, which is +38% over the same exact period a year ago when Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves opened during a non-holiday weekend. However, compared to last year’s Easter weekend, we’re down this year by -34% and that’s all because of Super Mario Bros. Movie.
As far as the middle players this weekend, it’s a deep bench. Exhibitors can give praise to three Bollywood titles filling coffers, the first of them being the dramedy Tillu Square starring Anupama Parameswaran, Sidhu Jonnalagadda and Raj Tirandasu about a man whose life is turned upside down after a mysterious murder. That Prathyangira Cinemas release is set to do around $2.5M in No. 6 spot. Four hundred fifty locations had alright grosses in LA, San Francisco, Houston, Toronto, Boston, Vancouver, San Diego, Seattle and Atlanta.
Then there’s FunAsia’s dramedy Crew starring Tabu, Kareena Kapoor and Kriti Sanon about three hard-working women as their destinies lead to some unwarranted situations and end up caught in a web of lies. That looks to bring in around $1.7M toward the bottom of the top 10. Booked at 486 theaters, Crew is posting solid figures in the Bollywood hotspots of Toronto, Vancouver, San Fran, Seattle and NYC.
Outside the top 10 there’s Prime Media Pictures’ Aadujeevitham in 200 locations with decent results on Toronto, Seattle, Philly, NYC, Houston and Dallas adding up to $563K 3-day.
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Liam Neeson has an action movie out this Easter weekend from Samuel Goldwyn Films, In the Land of Saints and Sinners, which is eyeing $1M 3-day at 896 sites with OK figures from Toronto, Vancouver, NYC, San Fran, LA and Atlanta to name a few. The Robert Lorenz directed title has pretty good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes at 80%. It takes place in Ireland, 1970s as Finbar Murphy (Liam Neeson) is trying to leave his dark past and lead a quiet life in the remote coastal town of Glencolmcille, far from the political violence that grips the rest of the country. However, a menacing crew of terrorists arrive, led by a ruthless woman named Doirean (Kerry Condon), and Finbar is drawn into an increasingly vicious game of cat and mouse, forcing him to choose between exposing his secret identity or defending his friends and neighbors.
‘Wicked Little Letters’ TIFF/StudioCanal
Sony Pictures Classics hasWicked Little Letters which world premiered at TIFF last fall and is from filmmaker Thea Sharrock. Pic stars Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley. Pic’s blurb: When people in Littlehampton–including conservative local Edith–begin to receive letters full of hilarious profanities, rowdy Irish migrant Rose is charged with the crime. Suspecting that something is amiss, the town’s women investigate. Rotten Tomatoes reviews at 71% fresh are provoking the older arthouse crowd to go, shelling out an estimated $102Kthis weekend or $20,3K theater average in NYC and LA.
No, it’s not last year’s The Super Mario Bros Movie, which notched the second-best opening Easter-weekend opening ever at $166M, but it’s a substantial amount of money to keep turnstiles spinning. Rotten Tomatoes audience score has notched up to 93% for GxK.
Source: Deadline
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