Refresh for latest…: Warner Bros/Legendary’s Godzilla Vs Kong thrashed off to an estimated $21.5M (RMB 140M) start in China today, good for the best opening day of a Hollywood title in the market since Covid began and portending a weekend in the high $60Ms. The film positively dominated the Middle Kingdom with an 88% share and played on 42,482 screens. Including the other 37 overseas markets where GVK is launching this session, the fourth title in Legendary’s modern monster series is now looking at a $90M+ international box office debut. The Adam Wingard-directed pic is releasing abroad ahead of domestic which falls on March 31 day-and-date in theaters and on HBO Max.
As we noted in our preview, GVK‘s bow will top WB’s own Tenet ($53M international opening weekend) to mark the biggest offshore debut for a studio movie in the pandemic era.
Social scores in China, where Legendary handles, are solid with a 9 on Maoyan (versus Godzilla: King Of The Monsters‘ ultimate 8.5). The Douban critical rating is currently 7 compared to KOTM‘s 6.3. GVK is looking to duke it out with KOTM‘s (unadjusted) $66M China launch and currently leads pre-sales through all of next week until local title My Sister opens on Friday. Maoyan today predicts an RMB 878.5M ($134M) finish for GVK, though these figures are subject to change.
Either way, this should come as some relief to the studios given a seeming rejection of U.S. films in China recently — and amid the current backlash against American products that’s been spurred by past comments of fashion brands about labor conditions in Xinjiang. Fortunately, that does not appear to be having an impact on the monster mash-up.
The clash of the iconic titans is also releasing in 37 other markets this weekend. Korea through two days counts $693K in the No. 1 slot. We hear things are looking very good elsewhere with nice holds since some markets released on Wednesday, indicating GVK is playing well and is not entirely frontloaded.
MORE…