Godzilla Vs. Kong’ hit Domestic Box Office Out Of Pandemic Depression With $48.5M 5-Day Opening

Warner Bros. was the first to ignite the theatrical marketplace during the pandemic. They began to reopen theaters safely with Tenet back in August. Now the studio is finally delivering a box office champ here as vaccinations go up, and Covid cases decrease across the country.

“This movie represents a way for people to slowly re-introduce themselves into a social environment,” Josh Grode, CEO of Legendary Entertainment tells Deadline, “Heading back to movie theaters and learning we’re not going to get sick; it’s these steps we’re taking over the next two to three months to get back to the normalcy of life. This is a movie for a lot of people who are taking the first step.”

Godzilla appears to be a giant, semiaquatic reptile. Like Kong, Godzilla has the traits of a few different species.

There are several second and third parties that benefit here from the glory of Godzilla vs. Kong in the ecosphere of the domestic B.O., not just Warner Bros. Exhibition, Imax, Dolby, concession makers, etc. reap in the financial success of this Adam Wingard-directed title.

Overall, Comscore reports that all films at the domestic weekend box office grossed $44.7M, the best three days we’ve ever seen since the pandemic began in mid-March, +143% from last weekend and get this: +109,000% since the same frame a year ago. The 2021 box office through April 4 counts $261.6M, -83% from the $1.8 billion that 2020 had grossed between January and the first weekend of April.

Going back to the Godzilla: King of the Monsters end credits stinger, we know that at some point a nefarious environmentalist group acquired the skull of King Ghidorah. We see that skull repurposed here as a sort of mech-control unit that's utilized by Ren Serizawa as a way to control Mechagodzilla through a psychic connection, kind of like the Drift in Pacific Rim.

But why would a different Titan head be able to control Mechagodzilla? Well, according to what we learn in this film, the Titans and Hollow Earth creatures share a genetic memory. That means any Titan has a connection to each and every other Titan. Ren used this Ghidorah skull as a control system for Mechagodzilla, essentially making the creature a part-Titan, mostly-robot killing machine that he alone controlled. But it also meant that Godzilla could sense and track down the creature before it was even activated.

Godzilla vs. Kong is the fourth film in what's called the "MonsterVerse," a series of films about the two giant monsters from Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros. It all started with 2014's Godzilla, which was followed by 2017's Kong: Skull Island, and then 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Godzilla vs. Kong finally brings the two biggies together to fight it out.