Godzilla X Kong Tops $436M Global Box Office, Kung Fu Panda 4 At $453M

Refresh for latest…: As it crossed the $1B international box office milestone this past weekend, Warner Bros again owned the frame with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and its third session haul of $33.7M from 71 markets. That was good for a 47% drop from the previous weekend and lifts the overseas cume to $278.6M and global to $436.6M. Meanwhile, WB and Legendary’s other major title in the marketplace, Dune: Part Two, now has a shot at getting to $700M worldwide.

While 2024 may end up down on 2023, coming out of last week’s CinemaCon exhibition conference, it’s not all doom and gloom — something we heard in a refrain — as several titles continue to post solid numbers. There’s also plenty of local play doing great business, notably in Japan this frame where the 27th movie in the Case Closed series, Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram, has opened to a franchise best launch (more below). 

Taking GxK first, in like-for-like international markets and using today’s exchange rates, the film is tracking 45% ahead of Godzilla, 21% higher than Meg 2: The Trench, 9% over Godzilla Vs Kong, 1% above Dune: Part Two and 7% below Kong Skull Island.

Notably, in China GxK has become the first Hollywood title to pass $100M there since Meg 2: The Trench which was a Chinese co-production.

GxK is also WB’s biggest movie ever in Cambodia, while the UAE this frame gave it the best opening weekend of the Monsterverse. There are still seven markets to release including most of the Middle East this week and Japan next week.

The Top 5 markets to date are China ($108.8M), Mexico ($27.7M), UK ($14.6M), India ($12.8M) and Australia ($9.5M).

In IMAX, GxK now has a $38M global cume, $14.8M of which is from China.

Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 4 added five markets this weekend, kicking up another $25.9M in 81 total (just 39% down in the holdovers). The offshore cume is now $279M for $452.6M global. Excluding China and Russia, KFP4 has topped Kung Fu Panda 3 overseas and is now the second biggest global DWA franchise behind Shrek.

KFP4 had a fantastic debut in Korea with Wednesday (in previews) delivering the second biggest opening day ever for an animated title in the market as well as best opening day of the franchise, best opening day of the year (beating mega local hit Exhuma), the top opening day for a Universal animation and the biggest April animation opening ever, overtaking The Super Mario Bros Movie.

In total, KFP4 took $6.1M (including previews) during the frame in Korea, becoming the first film to dethrone Exhuma at No. 1 since that movie opened on February 22. The UAE also delivered the biggest opening weekend of the franchise with $1.6M. 

Top 5 markets to date are China ($44.9M), Mexico ($33.1M), UK ($21.5M), Germany ($14.1M) and Italy ($10.9M).

In Japan, Toho’s Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram had a terrific $21.8M opening, including $1.5M from only 50 IMAX screens. This is the best launch weekend of the 27-film franchise and the the second-best opening weekend ever in Japan, behind Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train.

Sony’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire snapped up another $10.8M from 58 offshore markets for an international cume of $63M and $160M global. France led new play this session with $2.2M and on par with Afterlife. Still to be released are Korea and Saudi Arabia. 

Disney/20th Century’s The First Omen conjured $7.7M in its sophomore frame from 51 markets (a 41% dip). The offshore total is now $20.8M for $35.4M global. The Top 5 are Mexico ($3.3M), Indonesia ($1.5M), UK ($1.5M), Brazil ($1.1M) and Korea ($1.1M)

Dune: Part Two added $7.2M in 76 offshore markets. The international total is $411.8M with $683.9M worldwide. The IMAX global cume is $142M, the 7th biggest ever for the format. 

Here are the Top 5 markets to date: UK ($48.1M), China ($48.1M), France ($41.8M), Germany ($38.7M) and Australia ($22M).

Meanwhile, in China, Toho’s Oscar winner The Boy and the Heron continued its strong run, reaching $92M after its sophomore session with Maoyan predicting a $106M finish. The film’s global total is now $294.2M.

Also of note, Universal and Christopher Nolan’s Best Picture Oscar winner Oppenheimer added $887K in Japan this weekend, lifting the local cume to $7.3M through Sunday and making it the first studio title to cross 1B yen this year. After a two-week exclusive IMAX run, Detective Conan took a majority of those screens for its opening this session, though Oppenheimer will get some of them back in the coming weeks. The international total on Oppenheimer is now $640.3M through Sunday and $970.1M global. 

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