'Godzilla Vs Kong' sets global pandemic record

Kong not only smacked Godzilla in the movie but also 'Wonder Woman 1984' in terms of box office collection. Photo: Handout

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 US$121.8mil, including US$70.3mil in Chinese receipts. That's the biggest debut for a Hollywood film in China since 2019. The monster smackdown also grossed US$12.4mil 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 US$120mil overseas, according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore. The previous benchmark for a pandemic-era overseas opening was the US$53-million launch of the studio's Tenet in August 2020.

While American theatres 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 theatres operating at limited capacity, Universal's R-rated action flick Nobody debuted this weekend across 2,460 North American screens to US$6.7mil. Los Angeles and New York City, both recently reopened, were the two highest-grossing markets.

With an A- CinemaScore and 79% "certified fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the Bob Odenkirk revenge thriller easily outperformed recent adult-skewing releases including The Little Things, Let Him Go, and the Liam Neeson vehicles Honest Thief and The Marksman.

Family movies Tom & Jerry, The Croods: A New Age and Raya And The Last Dragon and the tentpole titles Tenet and Wonder Woman 1984 have had the strongest theatrical showings among pandemic releases, which makes the solid performance of a relatively less flashy title like Nobody a potentially optimistic sign for the weeks to come. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service