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The first Planet of the Apes movie under the Disney regime after absorbing Fox hits theaters this weekend with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes poised to do $50M+ domestic, and $130M WW.
After the dull opening of Universal’s Fall Guy, Jesus, God, Saint Mary and Joseph, let’s hope those projections stay steady. Apes plans to pull in the under 35 guy demo in a way that Fall Guy did not. Presales stateside of around $3.1M, in line with what was the 3-day of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning ($54.6M), indicate a $50M-plus debut. That start in U.S./Canada isn’t far from the $56.2M opening of Matt Reeves’ 2017 movie, War of the Planet of the Apes, and that would be considered solid. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ has the advantage that it’s opening at a time with less competition than War of the Planet of the Apes. This sequel, which takes 300 years after the events of War of the Planet of the Apes, is directed by Maze Runner filmmaker Wes Ball. No Rotten Tomatoes reviews yet.
The last three Planet of the Apes movies at 20th Century Fox, the latter two directed by Reeves, all received A- CinemaScore’s. The Tim Burton directed, Mark Wahlberg starring 2001 version landed a B- grade.
The $165M production is booked at 3,700-plus theaters boosted by a two-week Imax run and PLFs. The PG-13 movie has advance screenings in Imax and PLFs Wednesday at 7PM and on Thursday starting 3PM.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is rolling out in 100% of its offshore footprint this week, beginning Wednesday in France, Italy, Germany and Korea. Majors joining on Thursday include the UK, Brazil, Australia and Mexico. China, Spain and Japan follow on Friday.
Current projections for the frame are at $80M+ internationally. Broken out, that’s $70M from overseas, excluding China. That market is increasingly hard to call, and is also coming out of a very prosperous five-day May Day holiday stretch which saw three local films excel. What happens with Kingdom will depend on how those hold up — note also that Saturday is a working day. China at this point should be $10M+.
Looking at comps and at today’s exchange rates, 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes bowed to $62M internationally ($8M was from China). In 2014, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes did $127M ($37M in China) and 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes came in at a $130M launch ($56M from China).
The other advantage to those movies were that they had 3D whereas the Ball version does not.
Overall, the latest rendition of the franchise tends to perform best in a mix of the mature European majors, Mexico, Brazil, Australia and Korea. While we do expect Kingdom to land several No. 1 openings, it is likely in some cases to be topped by the continued play of a strong local title (think Korea, for example).
Overseas promotion included a launch event at the BFI IMAX in London on April 25 with Ball, Freya Allan, Owen Teague and Kevin Durand in attendance. Andy Serkis, who memorably played Caesar in the first three films of the recent franchise, was also out lending his support to this one.
The recent trilogy of Planet of the Apes movies from 2011-2017 grossed $1.68 billion at the global box office. The first movie, based on Pierre Boulle’s novel, launched in 1968 and grossed over $32M stateside, unadjusted for inflation. Several sequels were spawned in the 1970s. Burton’s reboot only made $362M-plus at the global box office and did not trigger any sequels. All in The Planet of the Apes franchise has minted over $2.1 billion worldwide.
Briarcliff Entertainment has Not Another Church Movie in 1,100 theaters this weekend stateside. Pic stars Jamie Foxx as God, Mickey Rourke as the devil, and Kevin Daniels. Written and directed by Johnny Mack, the comedy satire bills itself as “This is not a Tyler Perry Movie.” Expect single digits for the film.