The domestic box office is back.
Warner Bros. and Legendary’s “Godzilla vs. Kong” tallied a pandemic-best opening over the weekend, securing $32.2 million over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The film, which was released domestically on Wednesday, has how garnered $48.5 million in the U.S. and Canada.
Internationally, “Godzilla vs. Kong” added an additional $71.6 million to its box office haul. Since opening last week in foreign markets, the film has tallied $285.4 million.
“The results for ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ are absolutely mind-blowing and a represent a ‘welcome back’ of sorts for an industry that has been working its way back from the brink for over a year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
“Godzilla vs. Kong” opened in more than 3,000 theaters in North America over the weekend, the most of any film during the pandemic. In addition to posting the largest opening weekend since the coronavirus pandemic began, the film also had the largest opening day on Wednesday with $9.6 million and the largest single day on Saturday with $12.5 million.
“For anyone who may have doubted the pent-up demand for moviegoing, this performance is yet another sign of just how resilient the theatrical industry can be,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Boxoffice.com.
Over the weekend only 55% of theaters were open in North America, compared to the total open in 2019, according to data from Comscore. The majority of those cinemas are operating at around 50% capacity.
“It should again send a message to studios that the world’s audiences are hungry for big cinematic releases,” Robbins said. “If ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ can break out to these numbers in a still-handicapped domestic market with a simultaneous streaming release, imagine what other blockbuster contenders will be able to achieve in the months ahead when given a reasonable window of theatrical exclusivity from day one.”
”A sleeping giant is truly beginning to wake up,” he said.