The titanic smash-em-up demolished previous COVID-19 era U.S. theatrical box office takes with $9.6 million debut and $48.5 million 5-day opening weekend, that coupled with $236.9 million international cume, indicates movie theaters may not be dead…yet.
Contending alpha males Godzilla and King Kong have officially declared a winner: movie theaters. The wildly entertaining smash-em-up Godzilla vs. Kong earned $9.6 million in its Wednesday debut, $32.2 million three day, and $48.5 five day opening weekend tallies, blowing all other COVID-19 era theatrical box office earnings out of the water. Coming in a not-so-close second is Wonder Woman 1984 with $16.4 million. Godzilla vs. Kong also ended the weekend with $236.9 million internationally after two weeks to put its cumulative global tally at $285.4 million.
These fantastic numbers are due in part to the recent reopening of theaters such as AMC in New York and Los Angeles. It seems people are still willing to pry themselves from the perfectly formed butt mark on their couch and leave their homes to watch movies, even when they’re openly available to stream on HBO Max.
"Vaccines, plus falling COVID cases, plus more open cities and theaters, plus studio confidence, plus new movies, equals more patrons going to the movies," Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian said in a statement to EW. "People are frustrated; they want to go out. Dinner and a movie are something people have been thinking about for about a year.”
Perhaps the movie theater industry won’t die after all! Did you make sure to buy stock during the downturn? There’s still time!
Watch Kong and Godzilla (and Mecha Godzilla) duke it out for dominance in Godzilla vs. Kong, in theaters and streaming on HBO Max now.
Cybersecurity specialist by day, investigative journalist by night.
