Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has opened to a titanic $80.0 million domestic weekend box office victory while also bringing in $114.0 million overseas and $194.0 million worldwide.
As reported by Comscore, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire performed much better than expected as many predicted this new MonsterVerse entry would earn somewhere between $50 million and $55 million in its debut. It also secured the second biggest opening weekend of 2024 by destorying all the competition besides Dune: Part Two's $82.5 million.
This new film opened to much more than 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong, which brought in $48.5 million, but that movie was released during the later parts of the COVID-19 pandemic and also was on HBO Max on the same day. Per Box Office Mojo, Godzilla vs. Kong ended up making $100.9 million in North America and $470.1 million worldwide.
The only MonsterVerse film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire failed to topple was 2014's Godzilla, which started strong with $93.1 million. Godzilla, which kicked off the MonsterVerse, earned $200.6 million in North America during its run and $524.9 million worldwide.
In our Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire review, we said it "serves up a berserk dreamscape with plenty of payoff to please the MonsterVerse faithful. Shame about the human stuff, though."
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire took second place with $15.7 million, which was a 65% drop from its opening weekend. The latest Ghostbusters film has passed $73.4 million in North America and $108.5 million worldwide.
Dune: Part Two took third place with $11.1 million, bringing its domestic total to $252.3 million and its global total to $626.0 million. Rounding out the top five were Kung Fu Panda 4's $10.2 million and Immaculate's $3.2 million.
For more, check out our explainer of the ending of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire with director Adam Wingard, how the MonsterVerse keeps thriving by keeping things simple, and our look at who the real king of monsters is.
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Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.
