Box office preview: ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ to stomp all over Easter weekend 

Easter weekend should help end March as one of the best months of the year so far, thanks to yet another major franchise sequel, this time “Godzilla.” Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

As March comes to an end, considerably better than earlier months this year, Warner Bros. are releasing the third sequel of the month that follows up a pandemic release, as “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” brings back the giant monsters that Legendary Pictures has been shepherding along since the 2014 “Godzilla” opened with $93 million, grossed $200.7 million domestic and $529 million globally. In 2017, “Kong: Skull Island” opened with $61 million, leading into 2019’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” which opened with considerably less, $47.8 million, and only made $383 million worldwide.

Those three movies led to 2021’s “Godzilla vs. Kong,” which was stymied by the pandemic when it was released in late March 2021, just as movie theaters were reopening and with a simultaneous streaming release on HBO Max. Even with that, it was able to open with $32.2 million and made $468 million worldwide. (It only made $100 million domestically, similar to “Dune: Part 1” a few months later.)

Director Adam Wingard is back behind the camera, as are some of the humans from the earlier movies, including Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Kaylee Hottle, with a new character played by Dan Stevens. More importantly is that “The New Empire” introduces the adorable son of Kong, as well as other giant monster characters.

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Seeing how well “Dune: Part Two” has done compared to “Part 1,” we might as well be at a point where we’ve fully recovered both from the pandemic and the theatrical ennui that seems to have cursed many releases since last summer’s “Barbenheimer” phenomenon.

“Godzilla vs. Kong” received decent reviews and audience reactions, and with so many people seeing it on streaming, it’s likely to build up anticipation for this sequel. By comparison, reviews for “The New Empire” won’t be hitting Rotten Tomatoes until Thursday, which usually means that a studio isn’t confident critics will like it, although by then, many tickets will already be sold for the holiday weekend, and the kids that enjoy Godzilla could make this fairly review-proof.

The success of “Godzilla Minus One,” both at the box office ($100 million worldwide with $56.4 million domestic) and winning the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, as well as Apple’s “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” last year, are both things that have helped push Godzilla awareness to the forefront of American guys of all ages. While I don’t think “Godzilla x Kong” can open anywhere close to the $93 million of the 2014 “Godzilla,” it does seem likely that it can open with $50 million or more, taking advantage of schools being out on Good Friday and for spring break.

It’s hard to call anything else opening this week as “counter-programming,” since many of the other movies beg the question whether a nationwide release is even warranted. For instance, Liam Neeson stars in the crime-thriller “In the Land of Saints and Sinners,” which at one point was going to get a wide release but seems to be more of a limited release now. Co-starring Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) and Ciarán Hinds, the movie may get a moderate release into a few hundred theaters, but it doesn’t seem like it’s getting much promotion from distributor Briarcliff.

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A couple of other limited releases of note include Sony Classics’ comedy, “Wicked Little Letters,” starring Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley – who both received Oscar nominations for playing the same character in Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s “The Lost Daughter.” This time they play neighbors, whose rivalry involves writing nasty letters to each other, turning their small town on its ear.

French action filmmaker Luc Besson returns with his revenge thriller, “DogMan,” starring Caleb Landry Jones, as an abused boy who grew up with the love of dogs as his only salvation. It will open in select cities this weekend and then expand wider next Friday.

MUBI is also releasing Alice Rohrwacher‘s Italian drama, “La Chimera,” starring Josh O’Connor (“The Crown”) and Isabella Rossellini, into select theaters this Friday.

Fathom Events released the horror sequel, “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2,” on Tuesday, but there’s been no clear indicator of this sticking around in theaters through the holiday weekend.

Check back on Sunday (or possibly Monday) for the weekend results.

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