They were one of the first to lose The Warners in early April 2021 patience with covid and ignored the fact that a good third of cinemas worldwide are still closed due to the pandemic. godzilla vs. Kong did not betray their trust. Despite the controversial current premiere on HBO Max the first slapped lizards with a monkey in the world sold for almost half a billion dollars. Starving viewers in quarantine were always yearning for a giant blockbuster that they can enjoy on the biggest possible screen. Three years have passed and Warner Bros. again saving cinemas from the worst.
While most of the strike-scared studios at the beginning of the year were only very cautiously serving less ambitious films to the multiplexes (Kung Fu Panda and Ghostbusters are pardoned), crazy The Warners they didn’t mess around, and in recent months they’ve released the enduring and super successful Wonka, the huge-budget Aquaman sequel, the delayed Dune sequel, and finally the current entrée Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
I find it funny that the studio, which, especially in the second half of 2021, could not be named by moviegoers due to endless parallel premieres on streaming Max, is now their “savior”. Thanks to the mentioned four hitmen, the audience left almost two billion dollars in the cinema box office, and hundreds of millions more will be added in the coming weeks. Another fantastic rendezvous Godzilla with Kong because it imitated Dune: Part Two and started off with a bang.
Friday’s 37 million heralded an excellent 80 mega US opener, the second strongest weekend for the MonsterVerse franchise behind Edwards’ decade-old Godzilla. Yes, there is even a possibility that after Monday’s clarification of the numbers, we will also see the aforementioned humiliation Dunes, which managed 82.5 in the first weekend a month ago. Did you expect such a fire? I do not.
It is a question whether the surprisingly successful, universally praised and even Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One, which helped keep the brand in awareness for many months, also worked a little. Or maybe the fans who enjoyed the epic battle of mythical monsters destroying aircraft carriers returned to the theaters, and the trailers lured them to an even crazier “hollow action movie”? Maybe a little of each.
However, overseas audiences didn’t agree with the snarling critics, once again awarding the film a high CinemaScore of A- after leaving the theater, which is no doubt good news for the next few weeks, indicating a finish beyond the 200-watermelon mark. I’m just reminding you that the previous covid Godzilla vs. Kong overall managed “only” half of the total in the US.
The box office hit continues when looking at the rest of the world. A reported 114 balls – including a tentatively estimated 40 million opener in China – shot the global first-weekend subtotal to 194 mega. And they still have that The Warners and their Asian partner Legendary Pictures, which classically covered most of the budget, in advance of the premiere in France, Germany and finally Japan!
I don’t want to shout it out, but here it will go for half a billion dollars without any major problems, and personally I’m betting the finish is even a kilo higher. Even if Godzilla x Kong grossed over $560 million in theaters, it would still be the best result ever for the long-depreciated MonsterVerse! Perhaps an even bigger surprise for me than the high sales, however, is the low budget.
The representatives of the franchise so far have rarely had him balanced. By all accounts, the cheapest was the ten-year-old “number one” with a price tag of 160 balls, then the most expensive was Kong: Skull Island for 185 mega. Thrifty returnee Adam Wingard however, he acquired an overheated and gimmicky flush despite relentless inflation for just 135 million! How, you ask, looking at the opulent trailers that don’t shock with tragic CGI like the last one Ant-Man?
Well, tens of millions were relieved by (in)decent Australia, where most of the film was shot, while opponents are luring the filmmakers for up to a thirty percent tax refund. And then, of course, there’s the fact that someone has finally taken age-old wisdom to heart Mr. Hungertalking about the fact that in this particular franchise, nobody cares about the stars, and the younger target audience is heading to the theaters for over-the-top action flicks starring an overgrown lizard and a monkey.
Dan Stevens and Rebecca Hall excuse me, but here seriously not much was spent on actors and the audience didn’t boycott the news because it didn’t come back more and more expensive Millie Bobby Brown. I’d be surprised if most people even noticed her absence.
Colleagues chatted about Millie’s latest film, for which she reportedly received a $10 million payout from Netflix here
It remains only to remind you that the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is coming to theaters in a month and a half. Rumor has it that less was spent here than usual. Looking at the acting ensemble, led by nothing extra stellar Freya Allan it is clear where the wind is blowing from. If not for the current courtship Universals with dear Scarlett Johansson every time, the studio would like to do the next one Jurassic Worldso I would have thought that spendthrift Hollywood is finally starting to save.
Enough of immeasurable optimism. Ghostbusters: Ice Age takes the silver, and it’s exactly what you’d expect after lousy reviews and mostly average early audience reactions: a meltdown. The second weekend in – the most important for the brand – America falls by a terrifying 65% and pours into a half-empty coffers Sony less than 16 megabytes.
Looking at the total of 73 balls, even the resulting kilo will still be a chore and Bill Murray and co. they can immediately forget about the settlement of 129 million, which was taken in the USA by the previous Reitman’s Legacy. In the world, it is even more weak (globally we are only at 108 melons and I slowly stop believing that they will lose two kilos). Considering the fact that the budget swelled compared to the previous instance by a quarter to a hundred, I would bet that we won’t see the next part for a few years now. Here it will go into the red and Sony is experiencing a tragic start to the year.
And now back to the good news. Dune: Part Two conquered for the first time in three weeks Kung Fu Panda and takes the bronze. Chalamet and his nimble desert gang claim another low drop of 37% and have already conquered a quarter of a billion in US theaters by two and a half balls. After a month, it managed to triple (!) the initial 82.5 million in theaters overseas, and the acclaimed Dune it still doesn’t stop with the supply. I guess the final one in the USA is somewhere around 270-280 melons, which is no exaggeration of the imagination.
I wish sales would multiply with a similar intensity in the rest of the world. Not that the current 626 global balls wouldn’t also be a great result. Farewell beyond the 700 million mark is more or less a certainty, and the sequel (probably a slightly underperforming) number one will earn everyone involved millions already in cinemas.
It’s just that after the enthusiastic reviews and the almost ecstatic reactions of the audience (8.8 on IMDb and 91 percent on ČSFD after a month!), we were hoping for maybe even a little more dollar increase. It’s a shame that not every country has 794 or 183 IMAX theaters like in China and America. It is not only here that there are reports that even after a month it is almost sold out Dune she had to retreat in the capital Godzilla.
A pissed off Kung Fu Panda bites a potato. In the US, the foursome just managed to cross the $150 million mark, late premieres are already making themselves known in the world, and the global total is set at a nice 347 melons. It will eventually fall by me and Cival predicted half a billion? Yes.
I remind you again that the animes promised to families are almost always perennials that are watched for months. Jack Black in addition, he can still look forward to the April start in South Korea, where, for example, the duo earned more than 40 million. Five will certainly be created, because here, due to the low budget of 80 million, it will go massively into the plus.
What about five? He tries to get out of the worst Sydney Sweeney in the nun horror Immaculate Conception. I would probably appreciate the 39% drop in the US due to genre conventions, but the ambitious sex bomb opened last week in theaters for a measly 5 million, so the current 11 is no reason to cry despite the lower budget.
In sixth place, another of the numerous Indian exports did not disappoint. Tillu Square is the sequel to the hit DJ Till and at first glance 2.5 million is no miracle. However, such a result is calculated from only 450 cinemas, and what can we say – in India, crowds will surely go to the film, and a few American millions are, as always, only a welcome bonus. The following is a short clip that didn’t quite convince me to give the two and a half hour oriental comedy a chance over time.
He attributes the (un)lucky seven to himself Mark Wahlberg. A dying Hollywood star and a stray dog met on a trek through the Dominican Republic, which is enough for the adventure drama Unbreakable to take just $19 million after ten days in American theaters. I look at the handful of planned premieres in the world and think to myself Wahlberg maybe he should forget his faith for a while and beg u Seth MacFarlane about a Médis comeback.
In conclusion, we can only praise the endurance of the horror Late Night with the Devil at eight (400 theaters added, it fell by only a fifth, and the ultra-cheap retro, originally intended for streaming Shudder, has 6 megabytes on its account), to mention another Indian comedy Crew (486 theaters was enough for 1.5 million) and slowly end the weekend report with a look at the miserable horror movie Invisible Evil, which, in the end, I don’t know why it managed to earn enough 26 million in America.
We’re still not done. Bottom line, I have to lament that quite possibly the most attractive novelty Liam Neeson in recent years, In the Land of Saints and Sinners managed only a million from 900 cinemas, and thus did not even qualify for the TOP 10. Oh yeah.
Overall ranking of weekend sales here.
Next weekend, we will all be obligingly rooting for the action banger Dev Patel The monkey man, whose first impressions have already been praised by his colleagues after the press screening. Only second fiddle (at least I strongly hope) will be played by another of the series of cheap horror films aka The First Sign: Satan Comes!
