Box Office Predictions: ‘Godzilla x Kong’ Set For A Beastly Haul This Weekend
Box Office analysis is provided by Daniel Garris of BoxOfficeReport.com.
Weekend Box Office Predictions: March 29th, 2024 - March 31st, 2024
Fresh off of the recent success with Dune: Part Two, Warner Bros. and Legendary look to be in store for another strong debut this weekend with the release of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The latest installment of the MonsterVerse franchise was directed by Adam Wingard and features Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens and Kaylee Hottle. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is playing in 3,861 locations this weekend, is playing on IMAX screens and has Thursday preview shows beginning at 3PM. On the average, critical reviews for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire have been mixed, but the film is likely to be fairly critic-proof, especially over opening weekend. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is the follow up to 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong, which opened on a Wednesday and had respective three-day opening weekend and five-day starts of $31.63 million and $48.10 million. However, it should be noted that when Godzilla vs. Kong opened, the theatrical marketplace was still very much in recovery mode from the COVID-19 pandemic and that the film was released day-and-date, theatrically and on streaming via HBO Max. Thanks in part to opening in a stronger theatrical marketplace, it appears that the three-day start for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (including Thursday previews) shouldn't have a problem outpacing the five-day start of Godzilla vs. Kong. BoxOfficeReport is predicting that Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire will debut with $61.0 million this weekend. That would represent the second largest opening weekend of 2024 thus far (behind only Dune: Part Two) and the sixth largest opening weekend ever for Easter weekend.
Last weekend saw Sony's Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire debut in first place with $45.00 million. That was on the high end of consensus expectations and was just ahead of the $44.01 million start of 2021's Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Back in November of 2021, Ghostbusters: Afterlife declined just 45.0 percent in its second weekend to gross $24.20 million. However, as a follow-up to Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is likely to be more front-loaded towards opening weekend than Ghostbusters: Afterlife was; and weaker critical reviews and weaker apparent word of mouth this time around will likely lead to additional relative front-loading for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is also highly likely to take an additional hit this weekend from the arrival of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire in the marketplace. Look for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire to decline a sharp 60.0 percent this weekend to place in second with $18.0 million.
Universal and DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda 4 and Warner Bros. and Legendary's Dune: Part Two have been very close to one another in the weekend rankings each of the past two frames and could continue to remain very close to one another this weekend. Last weekend Dune: Part Two declined 39.2 percent to gross $17.61 million, which gave Dune: Part Two the edge over Kung Fu Panda 4, which declined 45.3 percent to take in $16.50 million. With Dune: Part Two losing most of its remaining IMAX showtimes to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire this weekend, Kung Fu Panda 4 may move slightly back ahead of Dune: Part Two on the weekend chart, though at the same time Kung Fu Panda 4 will also have to deal with family audiences focused on Easter festivities this weekend. Kung Fu Panda 4 could decline 30.3 percent to gross $11.5 million this weekend, while Dune: Part Two could decrease 35.8 percent to follow closely behind with $11.3 million for the frame.
NEON's Immaculate and IFC Films' Late Night with the Devil are coming off of respective opening weekend performance of $5.34 million and $2.83 million last weekend. Both lower profile wide releases delivered the largest opening weekends ever for their respective distributors. As lower profile wide releases, Immaculate and Late Night with the Devil may have less built-in front-loading than usual for horror films. And Late Night with the Devil will receive an added boost this weekend from opening in an additional 408 locations (for a total weekend location count of 1,442 locations). A decline of 43.8 percent would give Immaculate a second weekend take of $3.0 million, while a decrease of just 18.9 percent would transfer into a second weekend take of $2.3 million for Late Night with the Devil. Meanwhile, Lionsgate's Arthur the King could slow by 39.0 percent to finish in between the two horror films with $2.6 million.
Read more at BoxOfficeReport.com.
