They Have Risen: ‘Godzilla x Kong’ Conquers Easter Box Office With $80M Opening; $194M WW

SATURDAY AM WRITETHRU : 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.

Needless to say, at 55% Rotten, this is not a critics movie and shouldn't be surprising because the other one's weren't either

https://deadline.com/2024/03/godzilla-x-kong-the-new-empire-china-global-international-box-office-1235871670/

SATURDAY UPDATE: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire continues to show gusto at the international box office, coming in with an added $31.2M on Friday for a three-day running cume of $47.9M in 62 markets. Not included in that total is the China Saturday which added an estimated $18M – that’s a good sign in the Hollywood-tepid market and portends a $40M+ opening session there. Domestic is also psyched on the sequel – and if the numbers hold through Easter Sunday GxK will top $175M.

As noted yesterday (see below), China opened on Friday to $13.4M for the beasts. They dominated the market with an 80% share on 35,698 screens. This puts the opening day there on par with Jurassic World Dominion, 51% ahead of Godzilla, and more than double the opening days of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Warner Bros/Legendary’s own Dune: Part Two. This is a great start in the current China climate and bodes for a $100M+ final — basically a bonus these days in China.

EASTER SUNDAY AM UPDATE: 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.