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Box Office Report: ‘Kong’ Rules, ‘Logan’ Repeats, Horror Grows Again

By Nick Younker
Published on: 18:08 PST, Mar 12, 2017

Kong: Skull Island won the box office this weekend, but it did so with weaker than expected returns based on the size of the budget and the epic nature of the franchise for its vision. Historically, King Kong has been a big draw at the box office and gives the studio many high hopes. But this time, it may not be the dream box office returns it was hoping for.

With a $61 million return for Kong: Skull Island, the epic “big monster” film did not even bank one-third of its budget ($185 million) at the box office, according to Box Office Mojo. Although that is not a death nail in its coffin, that is a weak enough performance that Warner Bros. might be inclined to pull the plug on its expanded monsters universe that has been planned for big monsters like King Kong and Godzilla, either teaming up or fighting each other.

There is a flip side to that. Although Kong: Skull Island did not really pull out the gigantic box office numbers at the domestic box office, it did pull out $81.6 million overseas, which could help bring the box office numbers up to a justifiable expansion of the cinematic universe.

The “cinematic universe” is something that has been quite a trend lately and has amassed larger than life returns at the box office in recent years thanks to the onslaught of Marvel films that have been getting churned out at Marvel and Disney. That also includes the all-inclusive Star Wars cinematic universe that is producing sequels and spinoffs with massive box office numbers to back them up.

The massive team-ups by Marvel characters in The Avengers films and the subsequent solo superhero films with cameos by other superheroes have pushed the box office returns to record-breaking numbers over the past 10 years, giving the studios all the room they need for expansion.

The box office was also ripe with holdovers from last weekend, which includes the Marvel property (via Fox), Logan, as well as the hit horror film Get Out. Both films have been highly successful at the box office and Logan is the official wrap up for the Hugh Jackman helmed character that concludes his involvement in the X-Men franchise.

Logan pulled in an impressive $37.8 in its second weekend at the box office, bringing its domestic box office total to $152 million. Although it is unlikely to stick, this is said to be the final film in the X-Men cinematic universe over on Fox. But if the box office results are any indicator, then there could be more films like it churning out, such as solo projects for other X-Men characters that were featured in the films. That could also include any potential prequels or spinoffs.

Horror has been one of the biggest stories coming out of Hollywood over the first three months of 2017, now with Get Out pushing the box office returns to even more impressive heights and further cementing its legacy in the visual medium as a big draw for dedicated and casual fans. Get Out pulled another impressive weekend haul in its third week of release with a whopping $21 million and a cumulative domestic box office total of $111 million.

Horror fans have not seen box office numbers like this since the massive success of The Conjuring. But there is another horror film that has been at the box office a bit longer and has pulled out $135 million in 2017, which is the psychological thriller Split by celebrated horror maestro, M. Night Shyamalan.

One thing that is for certain this year is that the box office is poised to bring in huge numbers with people really taking to the fare of offerings coming out early in 2017 as well as the blockbuster season that is coming up.

[Featured Image by Warner Bros.]

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