Box Office: ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ Roars With $10 Million in Thursday Previews

Refresh for latest…: As it crossed the $1B international box office milestone this past weekend, Warner Bros again owned the frame with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and its third session haul of $33.7M from 71 markets. That was good for a 47% drop from the previous weekend and lifts the overseas cume to $278.6M and global to $436.6M. Meanwhile, WB and Legendary’s other major title in the marketplace, Dune: Part Two, now has a shot at getting to $700M worldwide.

Led by Dune: Part Two and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Warner Bros has crossed the $1B mark at the international box office, becoming the first studio to reach the milestone this year. Getting there in just 15 weeks, this also sets a new speed record for WB, besting the 17 weeks it took in 2018. The full international estimate through today is $1.04B.

“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” easily swatted away a pair of challengers to hold on to the top spot at the box office for the second week in a row, according to studio estimates Sunday.After its above-expectations $80 million launch last weekend, the MonsterVerse mashup brought in $31.7 million over its second weekend, a 60% drop from its debut.The Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures release, directed by Adam Wingard, has thus far outperformed any of the studio’s recent monster films except for 2014’s “Godzilla.”But with $361.1 million worldwide in two weeks, “Godzilla x Kong” could ultimately leapfrog the $529 million global haul of 2014’s “Godzilla.”The latest installment, in which Godzilla and Kong team up, cost about $135 million to produce.“Godzilla x Kong” extended its box-office reign as another primate-themed movie arrived in theaters.

Refresh for latest…: A busy holdover weekend for wide studio releases was led by the trio of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Kung Fu Panda 4 and Dune: Part Two. And, in a soaring performance, Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar winner The Boy and the Heron swooped into China helping the market set a new Qingming holiday record. 

No dart gun, or First Omen, or Monkey Man will put Legendary/Warner Bros’ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire to sleep this weekend. The pic, after an unexpected $80 million Easter weekend start, will continue to rumble with a 55%-60% second-weekend drop to between $32M-$36M. Through four days, the Adam Wingard-directed Monsterverse title stands at $87.7M, fueled by 57% of K-12 schools out Monday and another 14% colleges. Expect more cash today as, per Comscore, there are 28% of K-12 school out, and 5% universities.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter After three days of release, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” stands as the third-highest-grossing movie of the year. It has collected a mighty $194 million globally in its opening weekend, ranking behind only “Dune: Part Two” ($626 million after five weeks of release) and “Kung Fu Panda 4” ($347 million after four weeks of release) in terms of overall ticket sales. The monster mashup, from Warner Bros.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” stomped to the top of box office charts, collecting a better-than-expected $80 million from 3,861 North American theaters in its debut. Heading into the weekend, the monster mashup was projected to earn $50 million to $55 million to start. But “Godzilla x Kong,” which sees the two otherworldly beasts team up to save the planet, trounced those projections after benefitting from several factors, including audience enthusiasm (it landed an “A-” CinemaScore”) and premium large formats (accounting for 48% of ticket sales).

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “Long Live the Tyrant: Life and Times of Giancarlo DiTrapano,” a feature documentary about the independent book publisher, is being developed as an Italy-U.S. coproduction. DiTrapano is described by Ian Thornton, one of the film’s producers, as the “Basquiat of the New York literary scene.” The film is written by Guia Cortassa and directed by Cortassa and Vittorio Antonacci.

J. Kim Murphy Some movie stars don’t lose their luster. A 90-year-old ape and a 69-year-old reptile are taking over domestic charts this weekend, as Warner Bros.

Warner Bros/Legendary Entertainment’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is out and roaring at the international box office, generating $15.9M from 49 markets through its first two days overseas (Wed/Thurs). Not included in that total is the strong China opening day today which came in at an estimated RMB 96.9M ($13.4M).

In the wake of Dune: Part Two, Kung Fu Panda 4 and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Legendary/Warner Bros‘ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire continues to provide momentum to the box office following a lack of event titles in Q1 due to the strikes. Tonight, sources tell us that the Adam Wingard directed monster mash movie is seeing $8M from previews that began at 3PM Thursday in roughly 3,400 locations. That’s arguably the second-best previews ever for a Legendary’s Monsterverse movie following the first 2014 Godzilla which posted $9.3M. That Gareth Edwards directed lizard movie went on to make $38.4M on its first Friday with a 3-day of $93.1M.

between lizard and monkey. A creaturely collab.But “x” is also the symbol that should have been prodigiously used to cross out the script’s many, many stupid ideas.

The utterly convoluted lengths filmmakers will go to contrive some excuse to make monsters fight has become exasperating. Moreover, the unique paradox at the heart of Legendary’s Monsterverse series continues.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Watching “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” I realized that the movie, a standard overly busy and mediocre blockbuster with a pretty awesome wow of a clash-of-the-titans climax, was demonstrating one of the essential principles of Hollywood movie culture today. Namely: All blockbuster movies are now connected! Kong, living in the Hollow Earth, where most of the film is set (the Hollow Earth is a place I’ve never much liked the idea of, since it seems like Earth’s version of a storage basement), is supposedly the last of his kind, but he discovers a child ape who actually looks like an homage to the cuddly creature in the 1967 Japanese film “Son of Godzilla.” This kid gorilla leads Kong to a tribe of scraggly hostile apes who are living in a slave society presided over by the Skar King, an evil ape with blotchy red hair who’s as tall as Kong and wields a skeletal bone whip that looks like it was fashioned out of the spine of a sea serpent.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter What happens when two otherworldly beasts team up to take on the box office? Theater owners will find out this weekend as “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” touches down in North America. The monster mashup, from Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment, is targeting $50 million to $55 million from 3,850 theaters in its first weekend of release.

Adam Wingard has always had a flair for the most ultra-vibrant and loud segments of the color spectrum. Growing up in the ’80s, the golden age of movie tie-in merchandise, the director vividly remembers the neon palette, the yellows, blues, and reds of seemingly every toy from “Transformers” to “Thundercats” to even just “the mellow yellow NASCAR” from “Days of Thunder.” Bold visuals and bright colors were a staple of “Godzilla vs.

Nothing says Easter tentpole quite like Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire which is set to conquer the world with a box office debut around $135M, bolstered by 63 foreign markets and 3,850 theaters stateside.

EXCLUSIVE: After smashing records in Vietnam, Tran Thanh’s hit romance drama Mai has now set a new milestone for an opening weekend at the international box office, becoming the first Vietnamese title to score a $1M debut outside the home market.

Adam Wingard, director of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, is discussing possibly making a third film to complete the MonsterVerse trilogy.

The world premiere of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is here!