GODZILLA x KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE opening | March and year-to-date 2024 box office | March 29 to 31, 2024 Easter weekend
Opening weekend box office, charts and commentary
The current weekend: March 29 to 31, 2024 Easter weekend
1) Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire opening
- This is a sensational opening for a legacy monster series that was created in Japan in 1954 and has had four modern American productions before this, starting in 1998. Some observers believe Godzilla is the longest-running film franchise of all time.
Right now, the weekend is approx. two and a half times the average for a monster sequel, and it’s similarly ahead of the last Godzilla start in March 2021. The final numbers may change by Monday, but whatever they are, this is a fantastic opening:
- The Japanese-language Godzilla Minus One recently finished with $56.4m domestically, earned a 98 Rotten Tomatoes score, and won the Oscar for best special effects. It was highly acclaimed for its storytelling and filmmaking, and it earned more in No. America than it did in Japan ($45.3m in Japan). That movie elevated Godzilla for dedicated monster fans.
2) March and year-to-date 2024 box office
- The March domestic box office was down -25.8% compared with the pre-pandemic average (the average of March 2019/2018/2017). March was up +3.6% over March 2023. Year-to-date, the 1st quarter is down -40.8% compared with pre-pandemic levels, and down -12.3% compared with 2023.
March was a better month than January and February, and the fact that it edged ahead of March 2023 is a plus. But if we’re holding on to pre-pandemic standards for the box office — and we are — then there’s more catching up to do:
Dune, Kung Fu Panda and Ghostbusters are all doing very well. The reason they’re not adding up to pre-pandemic BO levels is that the earlier years had giant March releases, including:
Beauty and the Beast live-action (opened to $174.8m in 2017), Captain Marvel (opened to $153.4m in 2019), and Logan (opened to $88.4m in 2017).
Looking Ahead
- We’ll count Godzilla x Kong next month in April (see note below), and it will help those numbers. There's a lineup of fresh original titles starting next week, including Monkey Man, Civil War, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, and Challengers. Those pictures should generate good, though not towering, business.
The weak lineup in January and February dug a hole at the start of 2024. Comparisons will continue to be tough, and April will do well to stay close. Then summer looks strong starting in May, with The Fall Guy, Planet of the Apes, If (live-action/animation), and Mad Max Furiosa.
[Note: For our box office comparisons, we take the complete weeks of each month (each week runs Friday to Thursday) and we line up the same weeks across the years, so we are comparing the same periods. If we started on the 1st day of the month, this year’s March would have 5 weekends, which is a distortion.]