Though it lost steam over the past month, Warner Bros.’ “Godzilla vs Kong” has now become the second film since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to gross $100 million in North America, joining Paramount’s “A Quiet Place — Part II.”
The crossover fight between the two most famous movie monsters ever will go down in box office history as the first big blockbuster to hit American theaters as they began their post-pandemic reopening efforts. Released on a Wednesday ahead of the Easter holiday, the film grossed $48.1 million in its extended opening, battling against a market where thousands of theaters had not reopened yet and those that had faced state-mandated capacity restrictions.
After the release of “A Quiet Place — Part II” on Memorial Day weekend, “Godzilla vs. Kong” saw its weekend grosses fall below $1 million, sitting at $99 million in its domestic total while “Quiet Place II” took advantage of more favorable conditions to gross $100 million in 15 days. But after its 12th weekend in theaters, the MonsterVerse film finally hit the milestone with just $250,000 grossed.
“Godzilla vs. Kong” has also provided a boost for Warner Bros.’ streaming service, HBO Max, where all of the studio’s theatrical films are releasing day-and-date. During quarterly earnings calls, AT&T reported that the streaming service signed up 2.7 million new subscribers in the first quarter of the year, with the company citing “Godzilla vs. Kong” and fellow studio release “Tom & Jerry” as major drivers towards HBO Max.
While the streaming availability likely weighed down box office numbers to some degree, “Godzilla vs Kong” has stood as one of Hollywood’s most successful post-pandemic releases with $442.5 million grossed worldwide.
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