Warner Bros./Legendary’s “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” easily held on to the No. 1 spot in its second weekend at the box office, taking in $31.7 million.
While slightly below the $33-35 million that exhibition sources had predicted, Adam Wingard’s MonsterVerse film has seen its grosses tick upwards over the course of the weekend, similar to its opening at Easter. As it stands, “Godzilla x Kong” will hold its drop from opening weekend to around 60%, and could get the drop a couple points lower if Sunday matinees overperform.
Globally, “Godzilla x Kong” is continuing its solid run, adding $59.3 million overseas to bring its totals to $135 million domestic and $361 million globally. Later this week, the film will pass the $387 million global run of the 2019 MonsterVerse film “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.”
“Godzilla x Kong” easily retained the spot against a pair of R-rated newcomers: Universal/Thunder Road’s “Monkey Man” and 20th Century’s “The First Omen.” While “The First Omen” was predicted by trackers to have the higher opening, “Monkey Man” is getting the edge with a $10.1 million opening from 3,029 locations, hitting the lower end of projections.
Dev Patel’s directorial debut was originally set for a Netflix release, but was acquired by Universal and Monkeypaw for $9 million at the behest of the latter’s founder, Jordan Peele. At that price tag, “Monkey Man” will turn an easy theatrical profit for Universal and is now hoping to leg out among younger male audiences. While the film got glowing reviews from attendees at its SXSW premiere, general audience reception has been good but not great with a B+ CinemaScore and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 87% critics and 83% audience.
“The First Omen” had been projected for an opening in the mid-teens, but is instead falling to an opening weekend of just $8.4 million from 3,375 theaters. With a global start of $17.5 million, the film has yet to turn a profit against its reported $30 million budget. Audiences were not enthused by the film, giving it a C on CinemaScore while Rotten Tomatoes scores stand at 78% critics and 64% audience.
“The First Omen” is opening in fourth on the charts below Sony’s “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” which itself continues to show lackluster legs with $9 million in its third weekend. The fifth film in the “Ghostbusters” series is straining to reach $100 million in domestic grosses with $88 million domestic and $138.2 million worldwide.
Universal/DreamWorks’ “Kung Fu Panda 4” completes the top 5 with $7.8 million in its fourth weekend, pushing its global total past the $400 million mark as it has made $166 million domestic and $410 million worldwide.
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