Despite some skepticism heading into the weekend, Kong: Skull Island was able to continue March’s winning-streak with an impressive debut.
The monster film opened with an estimated 61 million dollars this weekend. While that trails Godzilla’s 93.1 million dollar debut, its hard to compare the two due to the later summer time release date. Among March openers, this is the eleventh best debut of all time, edging out Monsters vs. Aliens.
Distributor Warner Bros. should be pleasantly surprised with how this film trumped its modest 40 million dollar tracking figure, and a lot of thanks has to go to their constant advertising effort. Reviews are solid (80% on Rotten Tomatoes), but word of mouth in general surrounding the film appears to be more lukewarm. While this is a strong debut, Kong isn’t out of the woods yet, having a long way to go till it can break even with its 185 million dollar budget. It’ll be interesting to see how the film holds up in the coming weeks.
Falling down to second place is Logan, earning 37.8 million dollars. A sharp 57% drop off from last weekend is somewhat surprising, especially considering just how good the word of mouth surrounding the film is. However, a drop like that is very comparable to most superhero films, its just a bit surprising that Logan didn’t trump the status quo. Still, Logan has earned 152.6 million dollars so far on a 97 million dollar budget, already making it a big hit. Look for the film to close around the 250 million dollar mark.
Elsewhere in the box office, Get Out continued its winning-streak, easing a mere 25% to a 21 million dollar gross. The film crossed the 100 million dollar mark this weekend, now having earned 111 million on a mere 4.5 million dollar budget. The Shack also held up nicely, dropping 37% to a 10 million dollar gross (has earned 32.2 million so far). Rounding out the top five is The LEGO Batman Movie, nearing the end of its run with a 7.8 million dollar gross (has earned 159 million so far on a 80 million dollar budget).