In the wake of Dune: Part Two, Kung Fu Panda 4 and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Legendary/Warner Bros‘ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire continues to provide momentum to the box office following a lack of event titles in Q1 due to the strikes. Tonight, sources tell us that the Adam Wingard directed monster mash movie is seeing $8M from previews that began at 3PM Thursday in roughly 3,400 locations. That’s arguably the second-best previews ever for a Legendary’s Monsterverse movie following the first 2014 Godzilla which posted $9.3M. That Gareth Edwards directed lizard movie went on to make $38.4M on its first Friday with a 3-day of $93.1M.
Warner Bros didn’t return request for comment on tonight’s estimates.
Opening domestic projections for Godzilla x Kong earlier this week were at $50M.
While Rotten Tomatoes critics gave GxK the second worst reviews for the Monsterverse at 56%, RT audiences currently think it’s the best of the Legendary lizard monkey movies at 92%. We’ll see if that simmers down. Audiences’ previous fave in the series? 2021’s Godzilla v. Kong, which was also directed by Wingard and opened over the Easter holiday period to a $48.1M five-day; that pic reigniting moviegoing following exhibition’s year-long shutdown in major box office markets. GvK was available day-and-date in theaters and on Warner’s streaming service HBO Max.
GxK is expected to play in 3,850 theaters on Friday boosted by Imax, PLFs, ScreenX, D-Box and 4DX. There will also be some sharing of Imax auditoriums with Legendary and Warner’s own Dune: Part Two. That movie is the highest grossing title of 2024 to date with $239.3M stateside, and near $600M worldwide.