‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ roars to $80M opening
LOS ANGELES — The Godzilla-king Kong combo stomped on expectations as “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” roared to an $80 million opening on 3,861 North American screens, according to studio estimates.
The monster merger from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures starring Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry brought the second-highest opening in what has been a robust year, falling just short of the $81.5 million debut of “Dune: Part 2.”
Projections had put the opening weekend of “Godzilla x Kong:
The New Empire,” which sees the monsters teaming up instead of squaring up, at closer to $50 million.
“It’s a cinematic event, and we’re seeing these iconic characters doing things we’ve never seen them do before,” said Mary Parent, chairman of worldwide production for Legendary. “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.”
The previous week’s No. 1 at the box office, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” was second with $15.7 million for a two-week total of $73.4 million.
“Dune: Part Two” stayed strong in its fifth week, falling in the third spot with an $11.1 million take and a domestic total of $252.4 million.
The last matchup of the two monsters from Warner Bros. and Legendary, 2021’s “Godzilla vs. Kong,” had a much smaller opening weekend of $48.5 million, but for a film slowed by the coronavirus pandemic and released simultaneously on HBO Max, it was a serious success that signaled what was to come for the pairing.
“It was a really big number all things considered,” Parent said.
The newer film had the second-biggest opening of the studios’ broader Monsterverse franchise. “Godzilla” brought in $93.2 million in 2014.