‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ roars with $194 million opening weekend

Variety reports that the monster movie, a sequel to 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, is now the third-highest-grossing movie of the year after just three days of release, with a roaring $194 million worldwide box office total. In North America, it beat predictions with an impressive $80 million haul.

That puts Godzilla x Kong behind only Dune: Part Two and Kung Fu Panda 4 in the rankings of 2024’s biggest films globally. Those movies have taken in $626 million and $347 million, respectively, worldwide since their releases five and four weeks ago.

Godzilla x Kong, the fifth entry in the MonsterVerse franchise, starts Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens, Brian Tyree Henry and Kaylee Hottle. In it, Godzilla and Kong team up to fight a common enemy.

According to BoxOfficeMojo, another sequel with “empire” in the title, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, landed at #2 at the domestic box office with just under $16 million, followed by Dune: Part Two with just over $11 million. Kung Fu Panda 4 was #4, with just over $10 million, and the horror film Immaculate rounded out the top five with just over $3 million.

Of note, Variety reports that Christopher Nolan‘s Oscar-winning Oppenheimer finally opened in Japan, where it took in $2.5 million, coming in third at the box office in that country. The movie has now made some $965 million worldwide.

Given the film is about the man who helped create the bomb that killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens, there was a question as to whether it would ever open in Japan. Variety reports that in December a new distributor came on board after “months of thoughtful dialogue.”