‘Kung Fu Panda 4,’ ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ Battle Atop U.K., Ireland Box Office

Naman Ramachandran Studiocanal’s Amy Winehouse biopic “Back to Black” debuted atop the U.K and Ireland box office with £2.77 million ($3.4 million), according to numbers from Comscore. It was neck-and-neck for the second spot. Entertainment Film Distributors’ “Civil War,” directed by Alex Garland and starring Kirsten Dunst, debuted with £1.82 million, including previews.

Alex Garland’s provocative “Civil War” didn’t only ignite the discourse.The film also inspired audiences to go to the cinemas this weekend where it surpassed expectations and earned $25.7 million in ticket sales in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday.It’s the biggest R-rated opening of the year to date and a record for A24, the studio behind films like “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and “The Iron Claw.”“Civil War” also unseated “Godzilla x Kong” from its perch atop the box office. The titan movie from Warner Bros.

Naman Ramachandran Universal’s “Kung Fu Panda 4” topped the U.K. and Ireland box office with £2.8 million ($3.6 million), according to numbers from Comscore. The film now has a total of £12.7 million after two weekends.

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter Will pink and black loom large this week in Las Vegas? After all, this Monday kicks off CinemaCon, the annual exhibition industry trade show and weeklong opportunity for studios and theater operators to wax poetic about the magic of going to the movies. And in 2023, there was no greater manifestation of the claim that the movie business is back than the cultural craze of “Barbenheimer.” The inextricably linked “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” complete with double features of the cotton-candy-coated and ultra-dark blockbusters, dominated the zeitgeist for months on end. But just as the past can serve as a reminder of the collective joy of moviegoing, last year’s events may also plague the industry.

“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” easily swatted away a pair of challengers to hold on to the top spot at the box office for the second week in a row, according to studio estimates Sunday.After its above-expectations $80 million launch last weekend, the MonsterVerse mashup brought in $31.7 million over its second weekend, a 60% drop from its debut.The Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures release, directed by Adam Wingard, has thus far outperformed any of the studio’s recent monster films except for 2014’s “Godzilla.”But with $361.1 million worldwide in two weeks, “Godzilla x Kong” could ultimately leapfrog the $529 million global haul of 2014’s “Godzilla.”The latest installment, in which Godzilla and Kong team up, cost about $135 million to produce.“Godzilla x Kong” extended its box-office reign as another primate-themed movie arrived in theaters.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.The flick, a sequel to 2021’s “Godzilla vs. Kong,” is expected to take in $30 million this weekend, Deadline reported.In second place was the action thriller “Money Man,” with a $4.25 million-dollar take.The film, which is the directorial debut of actor Dev Patel, was released on Friday, and is expected to earn $10.5 million this weekend, according to the Hollywood Reporter.Vulture called the flick, where Patel also plays the leading role, “a solid action thriller.”“The First Omen” which debuted on April 5, landed in third, with $3.24 million in sales.The prequel to 1976’s “The Omen” and the sixth film in The Omen franchise “has flair but struggles with the weight and familiarity of what came before,” said The Guardian.In fourth place was “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” which made $2.43 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Legendary Entertainment’s “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” had the best opening in China of any Hollywood film this year. It scored $44.6 million (RMB317 million) in mainland Chinese cinemas between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. That was a nearly 70% share of the country’s weekend box office. Nationwide, cinemas enjoyed $64.1 million of business, a significant leap from the $39.5 million they earned in the previous weekend.

Godzilla-King Kong combo stomped on expectations as “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” roared to an $80 million opening on 3,861 North American screens, according to Sunday studio estimates.The monster mash-up from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures starring Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry brought the second-highest opening in what has been a robust year, falling just short of the the $81.5 million debut of “Dune: Part 2.”Projections had put the the opening weekend of “Godzilla x Kong: Frozen Empire” at closer to $50 million.Last week’s No.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is huge!

whopping $37 million during its first week in theaters, according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo. The Rebecca Hall-helmed big budget beastly buddy film, which The Post said has “a brain-busting plot,” opened in 3,861 theaters, and follows 2021’s “Godzilla vs.

Warner Bros/Legendary Entertainment’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is out and roaring at the international box office, generating $15.9M from 49 markets through its first two days overseas (Wed/Thurs). Not included in that total is the strong China opening day today which came in at an estimated RMB 96.9M ($13.4M).

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is looking mighty as it heads into its opening weekend, earning an impressive $10 million in Thursday previews. The muscular results come despite the fact that the film suffered meh reviews — critics faulted the latest clash of the primordial beasts for hectic pacing and overstuffed plotting. Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman, for instance, dismissed the film as “overly busy boilerplate” (though he liked the finale).

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.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. and Legendary are hoping for a monster-sized opening weekend for “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” and are tapping every method possible to pull in moviegoers, including partnering with Roblox to grab the attention of its young audience so that they will sway their parents to take them to the theater. Over the past two weeks, Warner Bros.

between lizard and monkey. A creaturely collab.But “x” is also the symbol that should have been prodigiously used to cross out the script’s many, many stupid ideas.

The utterly convoluted lengths filmmakers will go to contrive some excuse to make monsters fight has become exasperating. Moreover, the unique paradox at the heart of Legendary’s Monsterverse series continues.

There is a twist with the latest offering from the now-decade-old Monsterverse, a franchise that has featured Kong and Godzilla in their own movies and then in 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong battling each other to the death. (These monsters never really die. But you knew that). The twist this time is there an even greater threat for these iconic giant creatures to each other and the world, so instead of being on opposite sides of the ring, they team up against an evil new villain, a batshit-crazy ape on steroids named Skar King, in order to save not just Hollow Earth — where most of the action takes place in a dense rainforest — but just about everyone else.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Watching “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” I realized that the movie, a standard overly busy and mediocre blockbuster with a pretty awesome wow of a clash-of-the-titans climax, was demonstrating one of the essential principles of Hollywood movie culture today. Namely: All blockbuster movies are now connected! Kong, living in the Hollow Earth, where most of the film is set (the Hollow Earth is a place I’ve never much liked the idea of, since it seems like Earth’s version of a storage basement), is supposedly the last of his kind, but he discovers a child ape who actually looks like an homage to the cuddly creature in the 1967 Japanese film “Son of Godzilla.” This kid gorilla leads Kong to a tribe of scraggly hostile apes who are living in a slave society presided over by the Skar King, an evil ape with blotchy red hair who’s as tall as Kong and wields a skeletal bone whip that looks like it was fashioned out of the spine of a sea serpent.

Naman Ramachandran Sony’s “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £4 million ($5.1 million), according to numbers from Comscore. In the process, the band of ectoplasm hunters ended the three-week reign of Warner Bros.’ “Dune: Part II” in pole position.

Adam Wingard, director of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, is discussing possibly making a third film to complete the MonsterVerse trilogy.