Kong: Skull Island Climbs to the Top

Warner Bros. Pictures’ monster blockbuster Kong: Skull Island opened atop the weekend box office with $61.02 million over the weekend (March 10-12). Twentieth Century Fox’s superhero action drama Logan, starring Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart, fell after leading the previous weekend, capturing second place with $38.11 million. Universal Pictures’ horror flick Get Out looks likely to experience the strongest hold of any horror film this decade, dropping only 26.6 percent to $20.74 million and third place.

Kong: Skull Island opened atop the weekend box office with $61.02 million over the weekend. (Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures)

King Kong had plenty to beat his chest about last weekend. Although some early predictions had it running neck-and-neck with the previous weekend’s leader Logan, Kong: Skull Island instead trounced its competition. Starring Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson as a group battling an island of giant monsters, the film was helped by being the only major new release last weekend and Logan‘s steeper-than-expected fall.

Kong: Skull Island opened higher than several other recent “creature” destruction films, including Pacific Rim, Independence Day: Resurgence and Super 8. However, Kong: Skull Island did start 9.7 percent below the inflation-adjusted $67.6 million opening of 2005’s King Kong and 34.4 percent behind the $93.1 million start of Godzilla.

Logan’s second-weekend 56.9 percent fall was in line with the 59.9 percent fall for predecessor The Wolverine and 57.4 percent drop for fellow R-rated superhero film Deadpool. Still, given the film’s amazing reviews and word of mouth, the decline was larger than many expected. The film has earned $152.92 million through two weekends, or 2.2 percent more than the inflation-adjusted $149.6 million of X-Men Origins: Wolverine through the same period.

Get Outcontinues to post unheard-of holds for a horror film. Usually the most frontloaded genre at the box office with the possible exception of superhero releases earning steep drops after opening weekends, Get Out is proving the single biggest exception of the decade. After a stunningly small 19.5 percent decline the previous weekend, it slid only 25.6 percent last weekend. Buoyed by its fantastic word of mouth, the film has earned $110.73 million after only three weekends off an estimated $6 million budget. Despite opening 16.5 percent lower than the $40.0 million opening of January’s hit horror film Split, Get Out has held so well in subsequent weekends that its total is now running 12.7 percent ahead of Split through the same period.

Lionsgate’s La La Land spent its 13th weekend in the top 10, making it only the fourth film in the past decade to reach that mark as it took ninth place with $1.77 million, a 40.8 percent drop. The other three were last year’s Zootopia with 13, 2013’s Frozen with 16 and 2009’s Avatar with 14. It could be difficult for La La Land to spend another weekend in the top 10 with two new wide releases debuting next weekend.

Twentieth Century Fox’s Hidden Figures spent its 10th weekend in the top 10. The film fell 27.9 percent to $2.76 million for a seventh place finish. With at least another weekend or two in that top tier likely, it could soon challenge La La Land’s longevity as well.

The top 10 films last weekend earned a cumulative $149.35 million. That is 42.0 percent below the $257.49 million earned by the top 10 films the previous weekend. It is also 4.8 percent above the $142.57 million earned by the top 10 on this same weekend last year, when Zootopia led for its first weekend with $31.1 million.

Mark Heckathorn

Editor-in-Chief Mark Heckathorn is a journalist, movie buff and foodie. He oversees DC on Heels editorial operations as well as strategic planning and staff development. Reach him with story ideas or suggestions at dcoheditor (at) gmail (dot) com.