New 'Godzilla Vs. Kong' Movie Sets a Global Pandemic Box Office Record (siliconvalley.com) 16
The Los Angeles Times reports:
This weekend's international rollout of Warner Bros.' "Godzilla vs. Kong" set a new pandemic record for a Hollywood film, a hopeful sign of an imminent return to moviegoing.
The film, which opens in North American theaters and on HBO Max on Wednesday, debuted in 38 overseas markets to an impressive $121.8 million, including $70.3 million in Chinese receipts. That's the biggest debut for a Hollywood film in China since 2019. The monster smackdown also grossed $12.4 million on 891 IMAX screens, also Hollywood's biggest IMAX weekend since December 2019.
The "Godzilla vs. Kong" debut outperformed the entire to-date international gross of the studio's December blockbuster release of "Wonder Woman 1984," which currently stands at $120 million overseas (and an additional $45.9 million domestic), according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore. The previous benchmark for a pandemic-era overseas opening was the $53-million launch of the studio's "Tenet" in August 2020.
While American theaters are slowly reopening en masse after a roller-coaster year of reopenings and closings, movie houses including Regal and smaller chains (such as L.A.'s ArcLight) have not yet returned. Despite theaters operating at limited capacity, Universal's R-rated action flick "Nobody" debuted this weekend across 2,460 North American screens to $6.7 million. L.A. and New York City, both recently reopened, were the two highest-grossing markets.
Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland calls this "Good news for Godzilla fans. But bad news if you think all those movie-goers should still be staying home social distancing!"
The film, which opens in North American theaters and on HBO Max on Wednesday, debuted in 38 overseas markets to an impressive $121.8 million, including $70.3 million in Chinese receipts. That's the biggest debut for a Hollywood film in China since 2019. The monster smackdown also grossed $12.4 million on 891 IMAX screens, also Hollywood's biggest IMAX weekend since December 2019.
The "Godzilla vs. Kong" debut outperformed the entire to-date international gross of the studio's December blockbuster release of "Wonder Woman 1984," which currently stands at $120 million overseas (and an additional $45.9 million domestic), according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore. The previous benchmark for a pandemic-era overseas opening was the $53-million launch of the studio's "Tenet" in August 2020.
While American theaters are slowly reopening en masse after a roller-coaster year of reopenings and closings, movie houses including Regal and smaller chains (such as L.A.'s ArcLight) have not yet returned. Despite theaters operating at limited capacity, Universal's R-rated action flick "Nobody" debuted this weekend across 2,460 North American screens to $6.7 million. L.A. and New York City, both recently reopened, were the two highest-grossing markets.
Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland calls this "Good news for Godzilla fans. But bad news if you think all those movie-goers should still be staying home social distancing!"
Shortest movie ever (Score:5, Funny)
*SPOILER ALERT!!*
This is the entirety of the movie [9cache.com].
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Looking foward to it (Score:2)
I'll be waiting until this movie is available for streaming, as I'm a pretty big Godzilla fan. Kong in the same movie? Bonus.
As for theaters being back in business... well, good news for business, I guess. Unfortunately, Covid-19 infections maybe be trending back up. I'm hoping that vaccinations can blunt this latest potential upswing, but it's hard to say what will happen. I still remain optimistic that we'll be through the worst of things by summer, but until then, shields up, people.
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I thought you would be joking that it's good, and there's no way that they managed to get a decent story out of it, but it looks like they actually managed to [youtube.com], at least from the trailer the story seems intriguing.
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Yeah, honestly, for Godzilla, I'm pretty much satisfied if the effects are decent and the story isn't terrible (and I'll let the first one slide for older films). It's a pretty classic formula, so if they stick to that, they can't go too wrong. I want to see cities getting stomped, citizens running in terror, and over-the-top monster battles.
Seems it's not terrible. (Score:1)
A low bar I know for monster movies these days, but reviews seem to be that its decent.
Can't they think of something else ? (Score:2)
Other than endless remakes ? King Kong vs. Godzilla [wikipedia.org] came out in 1962!
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Not sure what you're talking about. King Kong vs Godzilla came out in 2021. Kingu Kongu tai Gojira came out in 1962.
Not everyone is interested in watching a foreign film with subtitles and two plastic puppets attacking each other.
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Saw the trailers, looks like fun, but.. (Score:2)
Superspreader event identified in 5...4...3...2... (Score:2)
I wouldn't read too much into this .... (Score:2)
In many ways ,Godzilla vs. King Kong is just symbolic for "Hey... the remaining movie theaters are finally starting to be allowed to re-open!" This is the type of film that has relatively wide appeal, so is well suited to serving as the symbolic "Welcome back!" movie as COVID lock-downs ease up.
Where I live, the old, struggling shopping mall is finally completing the revamping of their former Sears store into a new movie theater, so this is the first movie they're showing at the grand opening. (Of course,