‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ Opening Scales Up To $75M

This is how a great box office weekend should be. A studio goes into the frame expecting ‘X’, and they wind up with a substantially higher ‘Y’. It was definitely a good Friday for Legendary and Warner Bros with more walk-up business than expected as Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is now posting a $35M first day (plus previews) putting on the path to a $75M opening weekend. Also, the sequel nabbed an A- CinemaScore, which is the second best CinemaScore for a Monsterverse movie after 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, which was also directed by Adam Wingard.   Godzilla x Kong‘s weekend is still the second best U.S./Canada start for a Monsterverse, but also the fifth best Easter weekend opening ever after Warner Bros’ Batman v. Superman ($181M), Universal/Illumination’s Super Mario Bros Movie ($166.4M), Universal’s Furious 7 ($161.2M) and Uni’s The Fate of the Furious ($107.3M).   We’ll have more for you in the AM.   FRIDAY AFTERNOON: No monkey business here. Legendary and Warner Bros’ $135M production Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is blowing away projections with a $31M Friday (including last night’s Monsterverse-record $10M previews) and a 3-day of $67M at 3,861 venues. That’s the second-best stateside start ever for a Legendary Monsterverse film, ranking behind Godzilla’s $93.1M in 2014 and ahead of 2017’s Kong: Skull Island ($61M).   No, it’s not last year’s The Super Mario Bros Movie, which notched the second-best opening Easter-weekend opening ever at $166M, but it’s a substantial amount of money to keep turnstiles spinning. Rotten Tomatoes audience score has notched up to 93% for GxK.   facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook facebook   Sony’s second Friday of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is $5.1M at 4,345 theaters, -68% from a week ago, for what’s shaping up to be a second frame of $14M, for a running total of $71.4M.   Third is DreamWorks Animation and Universal’s Kung Fu Panda 4 at 3,582 sites, which is seeing a fourth Friday of $4.3M and fourth weekend of $10.8M, -35%, for a running total of $152.2M.   Legendary and Warners also own the No. 4 spot with the fifth frame of Dune: Part Two, which is looking like $10.5M, -40%, for a running total of $251.7M. Nice hold at 3,136 theaters, and that’s without a ton of Imax screens. Friday is at $3.6M, -18%.   Fifth is Neon’s Immaculate at 2,362 theaters with a second Friday of $1M, -50%, and a second frame of $2.8M, -48%, for a running total of $10.7M.   FRIDAY AM: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire made $10M in previews, according to Warner Bros — the best ever for Legendary’s Monsterverse, beating the first film in the series, 2014’s Godzilla, which did $9.3M. There was a lot of walk-up business Thursday night. As we told you last night, the audience score on this is high. PostTrak is 5 stars. It’s a really fun creature feature with a lot of heart; heck, it’s even better than Jurassic World: Dominion. Seriously.   Tracking firm Quorum this morning raised its projections for the movie on the high end to $66M-$74M Godzilla x Kong is the only new wide studio entry this weekend.