Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes reigns at the box office this weekend with around a $55 million opening. The new entry in 20th Century Studios’ beloved franchise posted the best domestic preview number in the history of the franchise on Thursday and Friday, so that might not feel like a surprise. But, with the recent months at the movies being regarded as “soft”, maybe Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the shot in the arm that theaters needed. Dune: Part Two did a lot of the heavy lifting earlier in the year and got a nice hand from Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Now, maybe the Apes will do their part to stretch things until Inside Out 2 hits screens.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The Fall Guy opened to a chorus of discorse about the state of the movies as well. Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt’s romantic action comedy opened at $28 million. (2 million under projections.) It sent the commetariat into a full-blown tailspin about the state of the theater industry. Now, that movie will bring in about $14 million this weekend. However, all of the conversation will now shift to The Fall Guy getting back it’s $125 million budget. (When did most of us become part-time economists?) Still, with a stable of fun entries on the way for the warmer months, viewers should probably concern themselves with just having a good time at the cinema. The rest will take care of itself.
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes Steps Into The Future
With Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes stepping away from the time period from the recent trilogy. ComicBook actually spoke to series newcomer Owen Teague about the advice he received from Andy Serkis as he got read to enter The Planet of the Apes franchise. It turns out there’s some things you can only learn from another actor who’s been in this type of project before. Serkis would stress that it’s still acting despite the motion capture and the strange environment at play.
“Well, yeah, we met on Zoom. I think he was working or directing something at the time, so he couldn’t actually come to Australia, which was a shame, but just the fact that we got to speak to him at all was amazing,” Teague told us. “It was so valuable getting to talk to him. He’s been one of my reasons for being an actor since I was six years old, so it was very surreal for me. But it was really good to talk to him about just how similar performance capture is to live-action work.”
“His biggest thing was to approach this the same,” he added. “You’re just acting. This is acting. You’re putting on a costume of this physical character, but everything else remains the same, which was really helpful to hear because I think I’d kind of been neglecting that a little bit. Maybe I’d been putting too much emphasis on the physical side of it. So yeah, he was just lovely. He was so generous and he worked with all of us in groups and yeah, he’s amazing.”
Are you surprised by the strong start for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes? Catch all of our pop culture discussion at @ComicBook on social media!