‘Godzilla x Kong’ Stays No. 1 at Box Office With $29 Million in 2nd Weekend

Warner Bros./Legendary’s “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” easily held on to the No. 1 spot in its second weekend at the box office, though it’s making slightly less than what trackers had predicted.

Industry estimates have the film earning $29-30 million in its second weekend, dropping 63% from its $80 million opening weekend. Movie exhibition sources had told TheWrap they predicted a second weekend of $33-35 million for the MonsterVerse film, but barring stronger-than-expected weekend matinee performance, the film’s word-of-mouth may not extend to casual moviegoers as much as hoped.

Still, “Godzilla x Kong” is headed towards a strong $132 million 10-day domestic total and should still post a decent theatrical profit against its reported $135 million budget.

Elsewhere, a pair of newcomers are showing mixed results in their opening weekend. Universal/Thunder Road’s “Monkey Man” is in second place on the charts with an estimated $10.5 million opening weekend from 3,028 screens after earning $4.25 million on opening day.

Originally set for a Netflix release, Dev Patel’s directorial and action film debut was brought to Universal by Jordan Peele and his Monkeypaw production company, acquiring the distribution rights for $9 million.

Because of that cost, “Monkey Man” will easily clear the break-even point for Universal this weekend, though the studio is hoping that word-of-mouth for the gory revenge thriller can pick up among young male audiences. Early word-of-mouth has been generally positive with a B+ on CinemaScore and an 86% Rotten Tomatoes score.

20th Century’s “The First Omen” isn’t doing as well, opening to an estimated $8 million in 3,375 theaters as it fights to stay in the top 5 against March holdovers including “Kung Fu Panda 4” and “Dune: Part Two.”

“First Omen,” prequel to the classic 1976 Richard Donner horror film, had been projected to earn an opening weekend in the mid-teens. But while critics have been generally impressed by the film with a 78% Rotten Tomatoes score, audiences aren’t as enthused — they’ve given the film a C on CinemaScore and an early 67% audience Rotten Tomatoes score.

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