'Kong: Skull Island' Roars to $61M Opening While 'Logan' and 'Get Out' Stay Strong
by Brad Brevet
Warner Bros and Legendary's Kong: Skull Island delivered a strong opening weekend performance, topping the weekend box office and becoming the third film in as many weeks to outperform expectations. The other two films, Logan and Get Out, continued their successful runs as they finished in second and third position respectfully, with Logan just $6.3 million shy of topping The LEGO Batman Movie as the highest grossing domestic release of 2017 in just ten days. Overall, the top twelve grossed an estimated $152.5 million, an improvement over last year by 3.8%.
With an estimated $61 million, WB and Legendary's Kong: Skull Island finished atop the weekend box office, delivering $15,865 per theater, from 3,846 locations. This tops San Andreas, the closest film we used for comparison in our weekend preview, which opened with $54.5 million. This is, however, well behind the $93.1 million Godzilla opened with in 2014 before going on to gross $200.7 million domestically. Question is, while the opening may be a bit lighter, can Skull Island improve on Godzilla's relatively tame, 2.15x multiplier?
Opening weekend audiences gave Skull Island a "B+" CinemaScore, matching the score for Godzilla. Of that audience, they were 56% male vs. 44% female, of which 18% were under the age of 18 and 52% were under the age of 35. Audience members under the age of 25 gave the film an "A" CinemaScore. Looking ahead, a domestic performance anywhere from $160-170 million seems reasonable.
While Skull Island may have fallen a bit short of Godzilla domestically, it is outperforming the radioactive lizard in some international markets where it debuted to an estimated $81.6 million in 65 territories for a $142.6 million worldwide debut. International highlights include an estimated $7.6 million opening in the UK (17% ahead of Godzilla); $7.3 million opening in Korea (90% ahead of Godzilla); $6 million in Russia (16% over Godzilla); $5.6 million in Mexico (on par with Godzilla); $4 million in France; $3.6 million in Taiwan; $3.5 million in Australia and $3 million in Germany. Upcoming releases include a March 24 opening in China and March 25 opening in Japan, both of which will be very interesting.
By comparison, Godzilla opened in 64 markets in 2014 with $103.4 million before going on to gross $328.4 million internationally and $529 million worldwide. WB and Legendary have a series of films planned for this franchise with Godzilla 2 slated for 2019 and a Godzilla vs. Kong monster mash-up in 2020, so it goes without saying that Skull Island's continued performance worldwide will be looked at closely.
In second is Fox's Logan, which topped $100 million domestically in just five days and with an estimated $37.85 million this weekend has now brought in over $150 million in just ten days. Of the three standalone Wolverine films this is already the second largest grossing and only needs $27.2 million to top 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Logan's 57.2% second weekend drop is a bit more than we were predicting in our weekend preview, but it is well within expectation for a film that opened as large as it did.
As of now, Logan is the second largest domestic release of 2017 and will soon be passing The LEGO Batman Movie to top the list (though Beauty and the Beast will soon be assuming that crown). Internationally, however, Logan currently stands as the #1 release of 2017 after taking in an estimated $70.3 million from 79 markets this weekend for an international total of $285.6 million and a worldwide cume of $438.3 million making it the highest grossing worldwide release among the three standalone Wolverine releases. Logan hits theaters in Japan on June 1.
Universal and Blumhouse's Get Out finished third this weekend, once again outperforming expectations as it dropped just 25.4% for an estimated $21 million for a domestic cume that now stands at $111 million. Coming up with comparisons for Jordan Peele's breakout thriller is near-impossible as its week-over-week performance is mind-blowing as it is already Blumhouse Productions' second highest grossing release of all-time and showing absolutely no signs of stopping. And it can't be said often enough, the film's budget was a mere $4.5 million.
Lionsgate's The Shack finished in fourth position with an estimated $10 million in its sophomore session and WB's The LEGO Batman Movie rounded out the top five with an estimated $7.8 million as its domestic cume is now just shy of $160 million.
Among the weekend's limited releases Badrinath Ki Dulhania brought in an estimated $850,000 from 152 theaters ($5,592 PTA); Paladin's The Ottomon Lieutenant opened in 216 theaters with an estimated $173,450 ($803 PTA); IFC's release of Personal Shopper delivered an estimated $92,516 from four theaters ($23,129 PTA); and CBS Films released The Sense of an Ending into four theaters where it brought in an estimated $42,000 ($10,500 PTA).
Additionally, Focus World's release of Raw into two theaters brought in an estimated $25,230 ($12,615 PTA) and Parade Deck Films released The Dark Below into one theater where it brought in an estimated $1,477.
Next weekend sees the release of Disney's Beauty and the Beast into over 4,000 theaters where it will become the first 2017 release to open over $100 million. Last year The Jungle Book opened with $103.2 million in mid-April before going on to gross over $360 million domestically. It seems safe to say Beauty and the Beast will top that film's opening as online ticket retailer Fandango.com is already reporting it is outselling Captain America: Civil War ($179.1 million opening) and is the fastest-selling family film in Fandango history, topping previous family record-holder, Finding Dory ($135m opening) as hundreds of showtimes across the country were sold out two weeks before the film even opened. Join us next Thursday when we take a look at just how high it may go.
| March 10-12, 2017 Weekend |
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