Weekend Estimates: Skull Island Breaks King Kong Opening Weekend Record

March 12, 2017

Kong: Skull Island

Kong: Skull Island is reigning over movie theaters this weekend, with Warner Bros. predicting a $61 million opening for the monster movie. This is a franchise that’s been rebooted so many times that it’s meaningful to compare this outing’s opening with previous incarnations. And I’m pleased to report that this is the best ever weekend for a reboot of a King Kong movie, topping King Kong’s $50.1 million, and King Kong’s $7 million. The bad news is that this outing doesn’t look so great when adjusted for inflation. The 2005 King Kong opened with an inflation-adjusted $65 million, and the 1933 original went on to make an inflation-adjusted $366 million at the box office… a number that’s a very distant prospect this time. In fact, once adjusted for inflation, this will probably be the lowest-grossing film to start a King Kong franchise, and the only one to miss $200 million at the domestic box office.

On a more positive note, Skull Island is delivering solid reviews and word-of-mouth, at least for a film in its genre, and an opening north of $60 million means it’ll cruise past $150 million at the box office domestically. An international opening of $81.6 million means it has a shot at $500 million globally, although that target will depend heavily on its performance in China, where is opens on March 24. Even if it falls short of that number (and $400 million seems more likely at this point), there’s enough life here to continue the monster franchise on to Godzilla vs. Kong in 2020.

With Kong the only wide release this weekend, Logan is having a comfortable ride to second place. It will be down 57% to $37.85 million, for $152.7 million to date. Its decline is OK for an action movie in an established franchise, but perhaps slightly disappointing for a film that got such good reviews and a positive audience reaction. Clearly Skull Island ate into its business this weekend, and vice versa.

Get Out, meanwhile, is continuing its remarkable run by posting another weekend over $20 million. It will be down just 25% in its third outing, and passes $100 million. Its total by the end of Sunday will be around $111 million.

Among the new releases, Personal Shopper stands out with $92,516 projected from four theaters, for an average well over $20,000. The Sense of an Ending and Raw will both top $10,000 per theater, while playing in four and two theaters respectively. All three of these films should please art-house audiences for a while.

- Weekend estimates

- Kong: Skull Island comparison chart
- Logan comparison chart
- Get Out comparison chart

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Logan, Kong: Skull Island, The Sense of an Ending, Get Out, Personal Shopper, Raw