While it’s only the second-best MonsterVerse opening, the movie ended up making $30 million more than expected.
Easter Weekend proved to be absolutely gigantic for WB and Legendary’s MonsterVerse, with the fifth film in the franchise (which we ranked here), Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, grossing a massive $80 million domestically. While it was no doubt propelled by the holiday weekend (tomorrow’s grosses should be huge), it can’t be denied that the movie opened way beyond even the most optimistic expectations. Industry estimates (ours included) expected the film to open in the $50 million-ish range, but despite mixed reviews, the movie grossed about $30 million more than anyone expected.
While this is only the second largest MonsterVerse opening weekend (Godzilla made $93 million in 2014), this is considered a massive win for Warner Bros. To compare things, the last MonsterVerse movie, Godzilla Vs Kong, only opened to $30 million. Granted, that was at the height of the pandemic, and the movie was on the day and date on HBO Max, but no one expected this to do these kinds of numbers. Its opening is in the Dune: Part Two range. Wow.
So far, the CinemaScore rating is a solid A-minus, so it should have decent legs at the box office. It will likely be easy for it to hold on to first place next weekend unless The First Omen and Monkey Man massively overperform. Meanwhile, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire saw its business completely collapse, with it falling a massive 65% following its underwhelming opening. With a $15.7 million weekend, it seems like this entry into the franchise may be its last on the big screen for a while.
However, one movie that rallied unexpectedly this weekend was Dune: Part Two, which pulled in ahead of Kung Fu Panda 4 to make $11.1 million compared to Panda’s $10.2 million. This was a surprise; many thought family audiences would boost the animated four-quel. Dune 2 has now made over $252 million domestically, with a $300 million finish not out of the question.
The horror title Immaculate also showed signs of life this weekend. While its opening last weekend was Neon’s biggest, many assumed it would collapse at the box office this weekend. Yet, Neon’s marketing team has been working overtime to play up some of the more controversial aspects of the flick, and it seemed to have worked. The movie only fell 39% this weekend to post a $3.265 weekend, which is good for horror titles (they nearly always fall over 50%).
Mark Wahlberg’s family title, Arthur the King, has struggled to find an audience, with ComScore revealing it lost 478 screens this weekend, only grossing $2.4 million in 6th place. Perhaps this should have joined other Wahlberg movies like The Family Plan on streaming. Late Night With the Devil, which is IFC/Shudder’s biggest movie ever, continued to perform well, grossing over $2.2 million, with a very small 22% week-to-week decline. The movie hits Shudder in three weeks and might break $10 million domestically, which is quite a coup for a microbudget horror indie.
Eighth and ninth place belonged to two Indian movies, with the Telugu language rom-com Tillu Square opening to $1.8 million, posting the second-highest per-screen average of the weekend (after Kong). Next up was the female-led Bollywood flick Crew, with a $1.49 million opening. These Indian films are really starting to clean up at the North American box office, with Indian audiences flocking to them. Watching these movies with an audience is a lot of fun, as the screenings tend to be quite raucous.
Finally, in tenth place is the Blumhose horror flick Imaginary, which is starting to wrap up its theatrical run with $1.4 million for a $26 million gross.
Next weekend sees the release of the well-received prequel, The First Omen, and Dev Patel’s awesome-looking action flick, Monkey Man. Do you think either has a chance to take out Godzilla x Kong in first place? Let us know in the comments!