Godzilla and Kong keep their throne at the American box office. © Legendary Pictures / Warner Bros. Pictures
The Kaijū are roaring once again at the top of the American box office. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire confirms its titanic start and garners three times more than Monkey Man with Dev Patel, and the horror film The Curse: the origin during its second weekend. We take stock.
The Monsterverse in great shape
After a strong start last week ($194 million worldwide), the latest installment of the Monsterverse validates its status as the success of the year with an additional $31.7 million earned in the United States.
The score is down 60% compared to the last weekend, a normal retention for a blockbuster of this size, which allows Adam Wingard’s film to total 132 million in the United States, for a worldwide cumulative total of $361 million.
Godzilla x Kong is a new success for the Monsterverse. © Legendary Pictures / Warner Bros. Pictures
At this rate, the new empire should quickly exceed the score of Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters (384 million), then the first Godzilla vs. Kong (470 million) in a few weeks, establishing itself as a new success in this universe. It could even match the Godzilla by Gareth Edwards released in 2014 (529 million) and Kong: Skull Island (566 million).
These results should also be put into perspective with an average budget per Monsterverse film which is tending to decrease. Far from the massive envelope of 185 million Kong: Skull Island in 2017, the 135 million dollars of new empire make this latest opus an even more profitable success for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros.
Dev Patel in Monkey Man. © Universal Pictures
In the rest of the classification, the film Monkey Man earned $10.1 million, a more than decent start for a film banned for unaccompanied under-17s in the United States, and with an XS budget (10 million).
Originally planned for the streaming platform Netflix, the first production of actor Dev Patel (The Green Knight, Lion) was finally acquired by Universal for a cinema release. The first reviews are positive, and good word of mouth should allow the feature film to easily become profitable.
Which is not the case for The Curse: the origin, who can’t hope for much with 4th place and $8.3 million for his startup. A launch far too light for the horror film with a budget of 30 million.
This new part of the franchise created in 1976 cannot even come close to the score of the last opus released in 2006, which started by raking in 16 million dollars. This means that success is always relative and must be read in terms of the money invested.
The Curse: the origin failed at the box office. © 20th Century Studios
US box office April 5-7, 2024 (estimates)
| MOVIE | WEEKEND | CUMULATIVE UNITED STATES | WORLD CUMULATION | WEEK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire | $31,700,000 | $135,037,630 | $361,037,630 | 2 |
| 2 | Monkey Man | 10 $100,000 | 10 $100,000 | $12,719,000 | 1 |
| 3 | Ghostbusters: The Ice Threat | $9,000,000 | $88,863,665 | $138,163,665 | 3 |
| 4 | The Curse: the origin | $8,363,000 | $8,363,000 | $17,463,000 | 1 |
| 5 | Kung Fu Panda 4 | $7,850,000 | $166,057,090 | $410,441,090 | 5 |