One shouldn’t read too much into the turnout of a late matinee “preview” showing of a potential weekend blockbuster.
But if a movie is showing to roughly three times as many folks as I normally see at a Thursday afternoon “opening” showing in rural Va. (missed the Orlando preview — traveling), that tells me something.
Deadline.com is projecting, based on $10 million in Thursday previews — roughly three times the “solid” opening “norm” for a Thursday — folding into a whopping $31 million Friday, that “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” will manage at least $75 million when the last dime is counted by midnight Easter Monday.
It’s a “cheerfully stupid” and stunning dull affair, and I wasn’t the only one saying so. But kids of all ages love their kaiju. Godzilla sleeping in the Roman Colosseum? That’s adorbs.
The Warner Brothers/Legendary release, another “monsterverse” uniting of the great Hollywood-made monster King Kong and Japan’s lizard king Godzilla, isn’t setting any all time records. But considering how much theaters need customers to tide them over until a post-strike summer season settles in, it’s a godsend.
“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” is quickly displaced from the top spot, falling off a box office cliff (65-70%) on its second weekend — $14-16 million. Easter Sat., Sunday and Monday could give it a boost, unless word is out how lifeless the damned thing is. At least Bill Murray and Annie Potts’ checks cleared, right?
But whatever. One “Empire” replaced by the next “Empire,” and all that. It’ll be in the low $70s, all-in, by midnight Monday, with a solid chance of grinding its way over $100 million.
“Kung Fu Panda 4” should pull in another $10 million+, pushing it over the $150 million mark domestically by Easter night.
That $10-11 million may let it remain ahead of “Dune Part 2,” which should clear $10-11 and thus have tallied over $250 million by the same end of Easter finish line. That’s the blockbuster of the year, so far, but that race for third is by no means decided as of Sat. afternoon, the big day for family movie going with the kids.
Sydney Sweeney as an “Immaculate” nun is still underwhelming, but may make it into the black for Neon, which didn’t spend all that on the “It” girl’s latest. It is “holding” respectably from its middling opening weekend take — another $3 million, maybe less. With a new “Omen” movie slated for release next weekend, that’ll be all she wrote for this one.
As always, I’ll update these figures as more data comes in over the long holiday weekend.
Movie Nation 