‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’ Fires Up $70M; Easily Top-Grossing Pic To Date At Domestic B.O. During Pandemic – Monday Update

Anthony D'Alessandro
·7 min read

Monday AM: Godzilla vs. Kong had a better than expected Sunday of $3.8M, off 38% from Saturday which puts the Legendary title’s second weekend at $13.88M, -56% for a running total of $70M. It’s conceivable that the monster fourthquel gets past $90M, and $100M wouldn’t be shocking at the domestic box office. What’s interesting is that on Saturday AM, rival industry sources believed GvK would hit $70M on the nose by EOD Sunday. If you haven’t already, read how GvK is already headed north of breakeven, a great sign of theatrical movies’ comeback as the pandemic slows, and a great achievement with Europe still largely closed along with Brazil.

Sunday AM: As expected, Warner Bros./Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong made up for its down second Friday ($3.88M, -67% off Good Friday) with a solid Saturday of $6.1M that was up close to 60%, which makes the pic’s second weekend $13.3M, -58%, for a running domestic total of $69.5M. That ease in weekend 2 would be considered quite standard during pre-pandemic times, and is a very good hold. Warners expects Sunday to be off -45% for a $3.3M day.

More from Deadline

RelishMix sees an uptick in social media wattage for GvK, observing that Warner Bros. Pictures’ social channels had added over 500k new subscribers to its official YouTube channel in a week, close to breaking 10M. The HBO Max social channels have added 639K to the pic’s social media universe, counting 2.49M and the HBO Max YouTube channel adding 217K new subscribers, now at 667K subs. “You can clearly see where the studios’ strategy is focused on YouTube,” reports RelishMix. In terms of video views, the needle moved most on the top 10 videos which added 218M YouTube views since opening last week.

Outside of Lionsgate/AGC Studios’ Voyagers’ $1.35M opening, notable limited releases included Sri Venkateswara Creations’ Vakeel Saab from filmmaker Venu Sriram, about the life of a criminal lawyer. Pic was booked at 290 runs in 102 markets which some OK plays in NYC, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle and Atlanta. Pic’s opening weekend is estimated at $411,5K with a notable per theater during the pandemic for a limited release of $1,418.

Social media diagnostics on Voyagers is low, which doesn’t come as a surprise, given the exits and critical scores here. When a studio knows they have a movie that isn’t going to move the needle, they’re not going to invest heavily on it, especially during the current exhibition rebound period. RelishMix shows that the social media campaign for Voyagers began five weeks ago on social, but has only achieved a moderate universe of 22.4M. Of that 6.4M comes from Lionsgate channels with another 6.45M from YouTube. “The cast of Voyagers adore Instagram across the call-sheet with an activated Tye Sheridan at 192K IG, Lily Rose Depp activated with 4.3M IG, Fionn Whiteheard with 70K IG, Chanté Adams 56K IG, Quintessa Swindell activated with 432 IG and Archie Madekwe activated 18K IG. Colin Farrell is the only non-social lead,” says RelishMix. Low social media buzz here for the film, ranking a low 4 out of 10 on RelishMix’s meter: “An over-all mixed sentiment” says the analytics corp on this Lord of the Flies in space.

There was also V. Creations’ Karnan in 95 runs in 53 markets which didn’t fare as well, doing less than Vakeel Saab in San Francisco and Seattle, with a $100K opening and $1k theater average. The action drama from Mari Selvaraj follows a fearless village youth who must fight for the rights of the conservative people of his village because of the torture given by a police officer.

We’re building the top 10 chart, separate FSS grosses reported when distributor makes note:

1.) Godzilla vs. Kong (WB/Leg) 3,084 theaters (+20)/Fri $3.88M/Sat $6.1M/Sun $3.3M/3-day $13.3M (-58%)/Total: $69.5M/Wk 2

2.) Nobody (Uni) 2,400 theaters (-167) Fri $750K/Sat $1.15M/Sun $750K/3-day: $2.65M (-12%)/Total $15.6M/Wk 3

3.) The Unholy (Sony) 1,850 theaters //Fri $700K/Sat $1.03M/Sun $670K/$2.4M (-23%)/Total: $6.7M/Wk 2

4.) Raya and the Last Dragon (Dis) 1,941 theaters (-90), Fri $550K/Sat $975K/Sun $615k/ 3-day: $2.14M (-5%), Total: $35.2M/Wk 6

5.) Voyagers (LG/AGC) 1,972 theaters Fri $515K/Sat $528K/Sun $307K/3-day: $1.35M/Wk 1

6.) Tom & Jerry (WB) 1,826 theaters (-447), 3-day: $1.11M (-17%)/Total: $41.1M/Wk 7

7.) The Girl Who Believes in Miracles (Atlas) 900 theaters (+260) 3-day $597K (+9%)/Total: $1.3M/Wk 2

8.) The Courier (RSA) 1,007 theaters (-315),/Fri $133,5K/Sat $189K/Sun $113,6K/3-day: $436,5K (-12%)/Total: $4.9M/Wk 4

9.) Vakeel Saab (Ind) 290 theaters/3-day: $411,5K/Wk 1

10.) Chaos Walking (Lionsgate) 1,300 theaters (-305), Fri $83K/Sat $117K/Sun $65K/3-day: $265K (-28%)/Total: $12.67M/Wk 6

11.) The Croods: A New Age (Uni) 1,139 theaters (-73), Fri $65K /Sat $110K/Sun $70K/3-day: $245K (+10%)/Total: $56.7M/Wk 20

Saturday AM Update: Warner Bros. pandemic hit Godzilla vs. Kong grossed $3.88M on Friday, which will yield an estimated $12.9M second weekend at 3,084 theaters (+20), -60%, on its way to $69M domestic by the end of tomorrow. In the Legendary title’s first week, the monster movie has grossed $60M, making it the top grossing pic stateside during the pandemic (since mid-March 2020), and giving Warner Bros. four out of the five top grossing titles over the last year which include the studio’s Tenet ($58.5M) in second place, Universal/Dreamworks Animation’s Croods: New Age ($56.5M) in third, Warner’s Wonder Woman 1984 with $46.2M, and the studio’s Tom & Jerry with $40.3M.

Even though GvK fell 67% in its second Friday off its $11.6M Good Friday, that is standard for any movie, even in normal marketplace standards. Such Good Friday opening hits such as Uni’s 2015 Furious 7 and 2017 Fate of the Furious fell respectively -72% and -76% in their second Fridays. Warner’s 2016 DC movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was -82% in its second Friday off Good Friday. A Saturday surge of at least +45% over Friday is possible for GvK.

Lionsgate has the sole wide opening this weekend with AGC Studios’ sci-fi YA PG-13 bacchanalia feature Voyagers which didn’t have any thrust with a C CinemaScore, 25% Rotten Tomatoes score, and lackluster Comscore/Screen Engine PostTrak exits of 53% in the top two boxes, and a very low 27% definite recommend. The pic skewed 55% male, 70% over 25 with 55% between 18-34 years old. The movie did $515K on Friday for an expected $1.3M 3-day. Lionsgate has a distribution fee here and AGC Studios covered most of the net $24M production cost in foreign sales. Lionsgate, which is covering P&A, and spending little on it, has low overhead here, so their losses won’t be to the ridiculous degree of Chaos Walking (which grossed $12.8M domestic off a $100M-plus production cost). P&A on Voyagers is spread between the theatrical release and PVOD, which ranges from under $10M for the first window and hitting the low teens by the time the Neil Burger-directed pic hits the second window. Diversity demos were 56% Caucasian, 18% Hispanic,17% Black, & 9% Asian/Other. More hope is expected from Lionsgate with the upcoming Chris Rock Saw title Spiral on May 14 and the Ryan Reynolds-Samuel L. Jackson sequel The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard on June 16.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.