Ah, the Easter repeat (much like Mario last year) regarding a glowing weekend comes back to hit us with a sweet punch. It doesn’t necessarily matter about reviews since the IP delivers precisely what it sells, so we’ll come to appreciate another rejuvenating team-up with your local mega lizard and giant ape. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire demolished more buildings with a $80 million domestic launch, the highest launch since Godzilla (2014) in the MonsterVerse collection. Now, in a much more gracious time with select titles getting their tokens in as the box office has picked up steam since March, this should theoretically leg out more than the Bryan Cranston/Aaron-Taylor Johnson led-pic a decade ago (which yours indeed rewatched this weekend and believes it remains the best of the franchise thus far).
The rock-n-roll looseness of the latest title is more family-friendly than that of past monster melodramas, and kids can find joy in a big blockbuster IP delivering what they want. Warner Brothers is on fire, taking in almost a third of the global market share for 2024, thanks to Godzilla and Kong and the performance of Wonka (at $632.2 million and counting) and legs of Dune: Part Two (at $626 million and counting). Perhaps with a streak like this, it would be very likely for the latest MonsterVerse production to pass $500 million globally, maybe $550 million. It’s an Easter miracle for a franchise booming to become another A-level tentpole series when this was unlikely on the table five years ago.
In other news, Ghostbusters: The Frozen Empire shattered (in a non-pleasant way) with a 65% dip in its second weekend, putting it at $73.4 million domestically. Crossing $100 million domestically should be fine, so it’ll join the same boat as its predecessors, as the “taking down ghosts” folks aren’t enticing to folks outside of North America. It’s pretty scary (the irony) to think that this series really can’t boon any further, even when adding back the originals, and newcomers like Paul Rudd can’t save it from possibly not even breaking even this time. I believe Sony will need a new series (outside of Spider-Man) to keep them afloat…
Dune: Part Two has passed $626 million globally and took a fine dip in its fifth weekend domestically. It should have enough spice to surpass $650 million cume, but $700 million will be the catch. Kung Fu Panda 4 will be passing $350 million worldwide by the end of the day today, so it remains on course to earn around $500 million worldwide once its time in the spotlight wraps up; competition this weekend didn’t seem to hurt kids chances of playing this one on repeat, which is a good measure for Dreamworks regardless as this fourquel is a B.O. win. Immaculate is holding well with $3.265 million in its second weekend (another indicator that Sydney Sweeney is the added value for Neon’s latest picture.
Next weekend sees the release of Monkey Man, The First Omen, Parachute, and Strictly Confidential.
