Godzilla X Kong Passes Godzilla Vs Kong At The Box Office, MonsterVerse Reigns Supreme
The MonsterVerse continues to be a winning franchise for Warner Bros. and Legendary as "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" had another good weekend at the box office. While it was, all around, a bad weekend for theaters with not one but three new releases underperforming, the latest kaiju brawl in this ever-expanding universe held strong in its fourth weekend of release. It now ranks as the biggest entry in the franchise since 2017, surpassing 2021's "Godzilla vs. Kong."
Director Adam Wingard's "The New Empire" pulled in $9.5 million in its fourth frame, placing third on the charts behind A24's "Civil War" ($11.1 million), which was in its second weekend, and Universal's "Abigail" ($10.2 million), which was new to theaters. The latest MonsterVerse film dropped just 38%, demonstrating an excellent hold week-to-week. Part of that has to do with a lack of direct competition in the marketplace but, either way, it's good news for WB and Legendary. As of this writing, the film has now earned $172.3 million domestically to go with $314.2 million internationally for a running total of $486.5 million worldwide.
That puts it past the $467.8 million global total put up by "Godzilla vs. Kong" in 2021, with that movie ranking as one of the first major Hollywood blockbusters to hit theaters in the aftermath of the pandemic. It also sits comfortably above 2019's "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" ($383.2 million worldwide), which remains the lowest-grossing entry in the MonsterVerse to date, and the lone flop of the bunch. 2014's "Godzilla" ($529 million worldwide) and 2017's "Kong: Skull Island" ($561 million worldwide) remain on top of the hill for now.
The MonsterVerse stays winning
"Godzilla x Kong" now ranks as the second biggest movie of 2024 overall, behind "Dune: Part Two" ($696 million). The monster flick is all but assured to pass the $500 million mark in the coming days, and it still has a shot at topping 2014's "Godzilla" before all's said and done. The odds of it catching "Skull Island" are more remote, but crazier things have happened. It's a most welcome win in a year that has been sorely lacking wins theatrically.
After the movie's opening weekend, the MonsterVerse had crossed the $2 billion mark globally since its inception a decade ago. It now stands at $2.4 billion across five entries. WB and Legendary have been content to play the slow-and-steady game with the MonsterVerse, taking what audiences are willing to give, and not releasing too much, too fast. That has worked out well, as the movies have still managed to feel like true events that moviegoers can get excited about. It feels like a certainty that the studios will come together for at least one more movie. It's more of a matter of when – not if – a sequel is announced.
Aiding matters further is the fact that Wingard was relatively thrifty with his follow-up to "GvK," as "GxK" has a budget of just $135 million. I'm aware that saying "just" when talking about numbers this large runs the risk of sounding ridiculous, but it's the cheapest movie in the MonsterVerse to date. It's also become far more common for franchise blockbusters to be closer to $200 million these days — if not much more. As a result, the studios stand to make more money, and it makes the whole enterprise far more sustainable. It's good all around.
"Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" is in theaters now.