The movie is set to gross twice its reported production budget in a matter of days.
The Big Picture
-
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
quietly dominates the global box office, nearing the $300 million milestone in just three weeks. - The latest installment in the franchise, directed by Wes Ball, aims for around $400 million globally before the end of its run, despite lower expectations.
- Critically acclaimed for its somber tone and motion-capture performances, the film introduces new characters for future franchise expansion.
Even though the domestic box office is in the doldrums, 20th Century Studios’ Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is continuing to quietly deliver the goods. The big-budget fourth installment of the Planet of the Apes prequel series retained a spot in the top five of the domestic chart while adding $20 million from over 50 international markets in its third weekend of release. And just like that, the movie is on the verge of passing a huge global box office milestone even as the industry reels from the underperformance of this week’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes grossed $13 million in its third weekend domestically and is eying around $17 million across the extended four-day Memorial Day holiday period. This takes the film’s running domestic haul to $122 million domestically and another $172 million from overseas markets, for a cumulative global gross of $294 million. The film’s global haul will hit at least $296 million by Monday, which means that it should be able to pass the $300 million mark before its fourth weekend of release. Directed by Wes Ball, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is eying a lifetime global run of around $400 million, which would be a step down from the previous three installments of the prequel series, but still a largely admirable performance for a movie that reportedly cost $160 million to produce.
The new Planet of the Apes movies suffer from the Avatar syndrome, in that it is common for casual audiences to point out that these movies don’t have much of a cultural legacy, but continue raking in big box office numbers. After debuting in the 1960s, the series was rebooted in 2001 with Tim Burton’s poorly received Planet of the Apes, which grossed over $360 million worldwide. The franchise was rebooted again a decade later, with Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which grossed $471 million in its global run. Director Matt Reeves took over the reins next and delivered the series’ biggest hit, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which grossed over $700 million globally in 2014. He followed it up with War for the Planet of the Apes, which ended its global run with around $490 million in 2017.
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Each of these three films, especially Reeves’ installments, has been critically acclaimed, with praise being directed at their somber tone and Andy Serkis’ ground-breaking motion-capture performance as the heroic ape Caesar. The streak continued, albeit to a lesser degree, with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Set a few hundred years after the events of War, the movie introduces a host of new characters that will reportedly lead the franchise into a new era of films. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has settled at an 80% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with Collider’s Ross Bonaime writing in his review that the film “works best when it explores its past and how the world evolves—especially when it comes to the legacy of Caesar.” Starring Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand and others, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is playing in theaters.
Stay tuned to Collider for more updates and grab your tickets below.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he’s been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
- Release Date
- May 10, 2024
- Director
- Wes Ball
- Cast
- Freya Allan , Kevin Durand , Dichen Lachman , William H. Macy , Owen Teague , Peter Macon , Sara Wiseman
This article was originally published on collider.com