Godzilla and King Kong fight at Warner Bros. ‘”Godzilla vs. Kong.”
Source: Warner Bros.
The domestic box office is back.
“Godzilla vs. Kong” by Warner Bros. and Legendary, recorded the pandemic’s best debut over the weekend, securing $ 32.2 million on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The film, which was released domestically on Wednesday, grossed $ 48.5 million in the United States and Canada.
Internationally, “Godzilla vs. Kong” added an additional $ 71.6 million to its box office. Since opening last week on the foreign market, the film has totaled $ 285.4 million.
“The results of ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ are absolutely mind-blowing and represent a kind of ‘welcome back’ for an industry that has been coming back from the brink for more than a year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
“Godzilla vs. Kong” opened in more than 3,000 theaters in North America over the weekend, the most of any movie during the pandemic. In addition to posting the longest opening weekend since the coronavirus pandemic began, the film also had the longest opening day on Wednesday at $ 9.6 million and the longest single day on Saturday at $ 12, 5 million.
“For anyone who may have doubted the pent-up demand for cinema, this performance is yet another sign of how resilient the theater industry can be,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Boxoffice.com.
Over the weekend, only 55% of cinemas were opened in North America, compared to the total opened in 2019, according to data from Comscore. Most of these cinemas are operating at about 50% capacity.
“This should again send a message to the studios that the world audience is hungry for big cinematic releases,” said Robbins. “If ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ can achieve these numbers in a still deficient domestic market with a simultaneous launch in streaming, imagine what other blockbuster competitors will be able to achieve in the coming months, with a reasonable one-day theatrical exclusivity window . “
“A sleeping giant is really starting to wake up,” he said.