Kong is No. 1, stomps Wolverine
LOS ANGELES — In the box office war among beasts, Wolverine was no match for the return of King Kong.
Kong: Skull Island, from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, pulled in $61 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters, performing well above expectations. It also brought in a massive $81.6 million internationally.
“We’re thrilled, happy and really excited by this tremendous result,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.’ distribution chief.
About explorers who land on an uncharted island that turns out to be Kong’s domain, Skull Island is a reboot of the 84-year-old piece of Hollywood history. It comes a decade after Peter Jackson brought King Kong back to the big screen.
The popcorn flick has been received well by critics and audiences alike. With a Bplus CinemaScore from moviegoers (56 percent male; 35 percent younger than age 25), it holds a 78 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The new movie, which was directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts and stars Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson and Brie Larson, is the second installment in the studios’ planned series of monster films that started with Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla in 2014.
Although Skull Island didn’t come close to Godzilla’s $93 million debut three years ago, it does still have the potential to match the latter film’s final gross of $200 million, plus $328 million from other countries. The new picture did best the $50 million opening of Jackson’s King Kong from 2005. That picture went on to nab $218 million domestically and $332 million internationally.
“Skull Island will continue to benefit in the coming weeks,” Goldstein said, from students on spring break, a demographic that gave the film an A CinemaScore.
In second place was 20th Century Fox’s Logan. After a better-than-expected $88 million debut two weeks ago, Hugh Jackman’s final outing as the claw-wielding X-Men mutant took in $38 million, crossing the $153 million mark domestically.
In third was Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions’ socially conscious thriller Get Out, which pulled in about $21 million in its third week. The picture, written and directed by Jordan Peele, has taken in about $111 million.
Lionsgate’s The Shack took fourth place in its second week with $10 million. Its domestic gross is $32 million.
Rounding out the top five was WB’s The Lego Batman Movie. The animated picture added about $7.6 million in its fifth week.
Moonlight, best-picture Oscar winner for 2016, took in about $900,000 for a total $27 million to place at No. 18.
In limited release, IFC Film’s Personal Shopper opened in four theaters to $92,516. The picture, which revolves around a ghost story in the fashion underworld of Paris, stars Kristen Stewart and was written and directed by Olivier Assayas.
CBS Films’ The Sense of an Ending also opened in four spots. Directed by Ritesh Batra and starring Jim Broadbent, Harriet Walter and Michelle Dockery, it earned $42,000. Focus World’s Raw opened in two locations at $25,230.
Today, the live-action Beauty and the Beast from Disney debuts. It will face BH Tilt’s thriller The Belko Experiment.