Reprinted from The Los Angeles Times by Sonaiya Kelley on March 28, 2021.
This weekend’s international rollout of Warner Brothers’ Godzilla vs. Kong set a new pandemic record for a Hollywood film, a hopeful sign of an imminent return to moviegoing.
The film, which opens in North American theaters and on HBO Max on Wednesday, debuted in 38 overseas markets to an impressive $121.8 million, including $70.3 million in Chinese receipts. That’s the biggest debut for a Hollywood film in China since 2019. The monster smackdown also grossed $12.4 million on 891 IMAX screens, also Hollywood’s biggest IMAX weekend since December 2019.
The Godzilla vs. Kong debut outperformed the entire to-date international gross of the studio’s December blockbuster release of Wonder Woman 1984, which currently stands at $120 million overseas (and an additional $45.9 million domestic), according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore. The previous benchmark for a pandemic-era overseas opening was the $53-million launch of the studio’s Tenet in August 2020. …
