While Godzilla x Kong Repeats At The Top Of The Weekend Box Office, New Release Showdown Sees Monkey Man Beat Down The First Omen
There was very little doubt what movie would win the box office this weekend. After all, last weekend's Sunday report was all about how the latest MonsterVerse title managed to have the second best opening of 2024 thus far. Instead of wondering which title would land the #1 spot, the big questions instead have been about what kind of drop Adam Wingard's Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire would have and how Dev Patel's Monkey Man and Arkasha Stevenson's The First Omen would perform as competing new releases.
Now, the numbers are in, and there is plenty to discuss. Check out the full Top 10 for this weekend below and join me after for analysis.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Falls 60 Percent Weekend-To-Weekend Following Its Powerful Premiere
At the start of last month, Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two managed to pull off an awesome feat: following its blockbuster opening weekend, its ticket sales only dipped 44 in its second Friday-to-Sunday. It was impressive to see unfold... and it was never going to be matched by Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Despite being a hit with audiences, the new kaiju feature hasn't had anywhere near the same kind of big screen buzz going for it, which is why it's not too shocking that business fell 60 percent compared to its debut.
According to The Numbers, the latest entry from the MonsterVerse franchise added an additional $31.7 million to its domestic box office total in the last three days. That brings its total for the United States and Canada to a little over $135 million – meaning that it has already surpassed what Adam Wingard's Godzilla vs. Kong brought in during its theatrical run in the region three years ago (of course, it needs to be noted that the film hit theaters just as cinemas were reopening during the pandemic and got a day-and-date release on on streaming.
Having also brought in more money than Michael Dougherty's Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, the 2024 movie is now the third biggest MonsterVerse title domestically. It will need to make another $34 million to bypass Jordan Vogt-Roberts' Kong: Skull Island on the charts and $66 million to outgross Gareth Edwards' Godzilla from 2014. Despite the sinking numbers in Godzilla x Kong's second weekend, both goals may be attainable.
The new release's positioning in the franchise box office-wise is a completely different story when discussing how the film is performing worldwide. After its second weekend, the latest title still sits at the bottom of the ranking... though that says more about the canon's popularity than anything. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has made $249.8 million globally so far, which is enough for it to already place as the seventh biggest movie of 2024 so far, but still has a ways to go before it matches what Godzilla: King Of The Monsters made during its full theatrical run in 2019 ($383.3 million). Kong: Skull Island, which made $561.1 million during its time on the big screen in 2017, remains top dog for the continuity.
Alex Garland's Civil War, which earned some stellar hype at SXSW last month, is going to be taking over IMAX screens next weekend, but there will still be a lot of eyes on Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire in coming weeks to see what kind of legs it shows. There won't be any major studio blockbusters of its ilk released in the rest of April, so the franchise film has an edge in that regard.
Saved From Streaming And Critically Lauded, Monkey Man Has A Strong Start At The Box Office
Like the aforementioned Civil War, Dev Patel's Monkey Man is another title that earned a lot of early hype thanks to a SXSW Film Festival premiere, and it has now cashed in. The movie is the directorial debut from Slumdog Millionaire/The Green Knight star Dev Patel, who has ambitions of unleashing fury and chaos as an action filmmaker, and it was notably rescued by Jordan Peele from a fate as a streaming release. According to Variety, Universal (which has a partnership with Peele) landed distribution rights from Netflix for $10 million, and the title was able to make all that money back in its first three days on the big screen.
Monkey Man has earned raves from critics and audiences are digging it too – delivering an 83 percent Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes and a "B+" grade on CinemaScore surveys. The results are comparable to what Chad Stahelski and David Leitch's John Wick was able to do when it was first released theatrically in 2014 (with the star power of Keanu Reeves, it made $14.4 million in its first three days), and while Monkey Man isn't similarly set up to blossom as a franchise, the results will hopefully excite the industry about Dev Patel's potential as an action director and star.
The film's ticket sales did come in slightly below predictions (Deadline estimated a floor of $12 million last week), but it's still easy to see the movie as a win for a small, non-franchise genre title.
Despite Strong Reviews The First Omen Has To Settle For Fourth Place
Like Monkey Man, The First Omen is another title that was originally destined for a streaming release, but the call was made in post-production to give the film a shot in theaters. The situation is similar to what happened with Rob Savage's The Boogeyman last year (which got a big behind-the-scenes boost from Stephen King), but sadly, the results aren't as positive. While the King adaptation came out in summer and made $12.4 million in its first three days, the new Omen prequel failed to match that performance and only made $8.4 million since Friday.
There are silver linings to acknowledge. For one, the film only cost $30 million to make (minus production and marketing expenses), so this is hardly the making of a flop. And that $8.4 million is money that wouldn't have been made had the film gone straight to streaming (like The Boogeyman, it will eventually get a digital release and it will probably do as well online then as it would have had the title skipped theaters). Whatever business it does now can be seen as a bonus in advance of it possibly finding a bigger audience later – particularly if its made available to Hulu subscribers during spooky season.
That wraps up this week's box office column, but be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to see how things are shaken up by the arrival of Civil War and director Wade Allain-Marcus' remake of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. Meanwhile, check out our 2024 Movie Release Calendar to discover all of the films set to come out in theaters and streaming in the months ahead.
