Warner Bros. and Legendary’s Godzilla Vs. Kong continued to make the case for blockbuster cinema now being safe again (relatively speaking) for global theaters.
on the pandemic. China may not need Hollywood imports anymore, but the strong showing implies that there are still some Hollywood franchises to which Chinese moviegoers will flock.
In even more optimistic news, the $165 million flick earned $11.6 million on Friday in North America, a 73% jump from Thursday’s $6.7 million gross and 21% higher than the $9.6 million opening day. I was frankly expecting real frontloading as the devoted fans flocked to theaters on opening night while the rest watched the film on. That clearly didn’t happen which is warming my cynical heart. The film has earned $27.9 million in three days, already bigger than any Fri-Sun weekend .
Considering pre-release forecasts were hoping for a $30 million-plus Wed-Mon launch, this is beyond impressive. It will be, by Monday, the third-biggest Covid-era grosser behind only. What’s most impressive is that it is legging over the long weekend like a normal release. A $52 million Wed-Mon gross would 5.4 times the Wednesday gross, which is indeed relatively “normal” for long Easter weekend releases. It’s about on par with the 5.92x Wed-Mon multiplier for Roland Emmerich’s in 1998.
As for “why,” well, this is the first time in a year where I’ve been able to discuss the box office performance of a Hollywood flick in conventional terms. So, yeah, credit better reviews thanand far more general audience interest in watching Godzilla fight King Kong as opposed to Godzilla squaring off against comparative cult monsters like Mothra and King Ghidorah. That the trailer emphasized daylight fights and a rock-and-roll sensibility over the grim opera tones ofprobably helped.