Godzilla vs. Kong Is a Box Office Breakthrough

Godzilla vs. Kong, the sophisticated, dialogue-driven project (more a filmed-play, really) has proven to be a success with audiences, no doubt due to its nuanced characters and crafty, nimble plot.

Oh wait, sorry, that was a report from Hollow Earth, where gravity runs backward and everything is upside-down. Godzilla vs. Kong is, indeed, a hit, but because it is about two enormous beasts who don’t know how to use their words.

The big screen battle of known IPs is the first official hit of the coronavirus era. Its $48.5 million take from domestic theaters in its first five days has, in the words of The Hollywood Reporter, exceeded all expectations. This comes on the heels of last weekend’s opening, in which the two pugilistic monsters earned $122 million from Asian and Latin American markets.

Word of mouth on the picture was strong. Anecdotal evidence observed by this writer includes overhearing every single employee of a Queens, New York pizza parlor either giddy with appreciation or buzzing with anticipation to view the picture while in accordance with Gov. Andrew Cuomo‘s latest edict. Reviews were fair-to-positive, with a 76 percent at Rotten Tomatoes and a 60 at the more nuanced MetaCritic. V.F.’s Richard Lawson said the fourth entry in Warner Bros.’s so-called MonsterVerse “competently, efficiently does its job.”

But that threshold of “dumb, but fun” with increased vaccination rates was clearly enough to get butts back into seats. THR’s report says the top domestic markets were newly reopened New York and Los Angeles, and that there were over 10,000 privately-booked screenings nationwide.

Adam Wingard‘s film, the highlight of which is a battle in downtown Hong Kong that looks like Tron for some reason, didn’t just break pandemic-era records, it won the Internet with a cascade of jokes and memes.

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