How much did Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire make in the opening weekend? Box office numbers explored
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was arguably one of the most anticipated movies of this year, and fans have shown how much they were waiting for the latest installment of the Warner Bros. film.
In an astonishing development, the film has already accumulated a total of $194 million globally in merely three days, making it one of the most successful films in its genre, and one of the biggest of 2024.
Directed by Adam Wingard and produced by WB in partnership with Legendary Pictures, the film serves as a sequel to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2021) and the fifth entry into the Monsterverse franchise that started with Godzilla (2014).
According to reports from Variety, the film has grossed $114 million from 64 markets worldwide, which is a big success in this genre. The box office expectations were also shattered in North America, where the film earned $80 million, just slightly short of Dune: Part Two's opening, which earned $81.5 million.
Deciphering the reason behind Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire's terrific box office performance
Monster movies have been prominent in the industry for a long, long time, and WB's earlier entry into the franchise, Godzilla (2014) also did extremely well at the box office in the pre-pandemic era. But of course, since the huge global pandemic, ticket sales have significantly gone down. Now, it has nearly resurged to its very best.
One of the reasons behind this great box office collection is of course audiences going back to theatres, which has rapidly increased over the past year, since the release of Barbie and Oppenheimer, both of which also turned out to be great critical successes.
Another major reason for this surge in popularity is the carefully curated Monsterverse, which has effectively linked the stories of the two monsters over a series of films.
Moreover, the release of Godzilla Minus One, which became one of the biggest critical successes in the genre, has also fueled the popularity of Monster films like this one. Takashi Yamazaki's Godzilla Minus One managed to win an Oscar as well, further increasing the value of the genre as a whole.
All this combined gave a great boost to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which effectively surpassed its predecessor, Godzilla vs. Kong, which opened with $48.5 million on its first weekend.
Speaking about the film, Mary Parent, chairman of worldwide production for Legendary, said:
"It’s a cinematic event, and we’re seeing these iconic characters doing things we’ve never seen them do before...There’s big swaths of the film that don’t have any dialogue, where we put you with the characters, it’s a very mythic experience."
Godzilla x Kong still has a long run ahead of it and it will not be a huge surprise to see it surpass every entry that came before it. It is certified at a fair 55 percent on Rotten Tomatoes at the moment.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire follows Godzilla and Kong teaming up to take down a huge threat that jeopardizes the future of mankind and the planet. The film stars Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, and Fala Chen.
Godzilla x Kong is currently playing in the theatres. Stay tuned for more updates.