Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is doing monstrous business at the Easter weekend box office.
After biting off $37 million on Friday, the Warner Bros. and Legendary tentpole is now on course to open to $75 million at the North American box office, well ahead of an expected $45 million to $55 million. If those predictions hold true, it will be the second-biggest opening of the five titles in the MonsterVerse library, as well as a jolt of good news for the box office, delivering the biggest debut of the year to date.
Globally, it has a chance of crossing the $200 million mark in its launch (it’s even doing well in China, where Legendary East is handling the movie). Through Friday, its early foreign tally was $47.1 million. Its opening day haul in China was $13.7 million, including previews. These days, many Hollywood films don’t even get to that level for the whole weekend.
Many critics didn’t think highly of the film, but audiences disagreed, giving in an A- CinemaScore and 4.5 stars on PostTrack. It’s also playing to an ethnically diverse audience. Males made up 67 of Friday’s audience, while 62 percent of those buying tickets were ages 35 and under.
Adam Wingard returned to direct the tentpole, which stars Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry and Dan Stevens. This time around, the two mega-monsters actually decide to put aside their differences and face a mysterious force that threatens to destroy their planet.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has no major competition to speak of and will easily find more Easter eggs than other films, including the new Ghostbusters movie, which opened last weekend.
But Godzilla and Kong aren’t the only reason why WB and Legendary have reason to celebrate. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two crossed the $600 million mark at the worldwide box office on Friday, compared to $406 million globally for the first Dune.
Numbers will be updated Sunday.
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