It has been months since we’ve really been able to give good news regarding the box office, but thanks to Adam Wingard’s MonsterVerse extravaganza, “Godzilla vs. Kong,” North American theaters are finally starting to show some signs of life. But the real question is whether or not the momentum can keep going?
According to estimates, it appears that “Godzilla vs. Kong” was able to earn a whopping $32.2 million over the three-day weekend and a total of $48.5 million since its debut on Wednesday. Though this would have been seen as a big loss a year ago (pre-pandemic), these totals are absolutely phenomenal for an industry that is looking for any signs of life as North American cinemas begin to reopen fully and COVID vaccines continue to be disseminated.
Adding more intrigue to the “Godzilla vs. Kong” performance is the fact the film debuted in theaters and HBO Max on the same day. For theaters, this is bittersweet. On the one hand, this shows WarnerMedia might have been correct to say people will still venture out to the theater to see films even if they’re available on streaming. On the other hand, this large total only makes theater chains wonder what could have been if HBO Max wasn’t an option and more people were asked to go to cinemas to watch the blockbuster. Could we have seen numbers approach $75 million? $100 million? We’ll never know.
Of course, $48.5 million over 5 days isn’t enough to say “Godzilla vs. Kong” is a financial success. Far from it. The film carries a reported budget of approximately $160 million, not including marketing. This means the box office needs to go a lot higher if WarnerMedia hopes to become profitable off of ticket sales alone. Thankfully, overseas, the film is doing even better.
With the $48.5 million from North America, the worldwide total for “Godzilla vs. Kong” now stands at $285.4 million. Of course, the film debuted a week earlier overseas, so the number takes into account two weeks’ worth of grosses. Still, when you compare it to the only other film to have a really solid box office during the pandemic, Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” these numbers are very promising.
Over the course of its entire theatrical run (with no streaming hybrid release), “Tenet” earned a paltry $58 million domestically and $363 million worldwide. Already, it would appear that “Godzilla vs. Kong” is going to destroy those numbers. Of course, it’s not a true apples-to-apples comparison, given “Tenet” debuted in a time when most theaters were shut down and the COVID vaccine didn’t exist. But still, this is the type of performance that theater owners were hoping to see this year.
But again, the real question that looms over all of this is whether or not the momentum can continue in the weeks to come. A rather depressing figure is the total North American weekend box office for all films in theaters, which came in at $44 million. That means when you take out “Godzilla vs. Kong,” you’re looking at just over $11 million for the remainder of the films that played in theaters. This means people aren’t necessarily interested in anything else other than the giant lizard versus the giant ape. So, what’s going to happen next week?
That’s the problem, right? Next week’s big release is “Voyagers,” which is hardly a show-stopping blockbuster title that will attract a huge audience. The next blockbuster doesn’t come until April 23, when WB’s “Mortal Kombat” debuts. That film, much like “Godzilla vs. Kong,” features the studio experimenting with HBO Max and theatrical releasing day-and-date. It’ll be a test to see whether this weekend’s total was a fluke or if the story is going to continue to improve for cinemas around North America.
Right now, it’s vitally important for theaters to continue to attract crowds and build off of “Godzilla vs. Kong” in a meaningful way. The last thing studios and cinemas want to see next is a complete drop-off in box office between films. For confidence from studios to improve, box office receipts need to keep impressing. Otherwise, “Godzilla vs. Kong” will be the next “Tenet” — a momentary blip that quickly fades away.