'Godzilla Vs. Kong' Set To Surpass 'Tenet' And Become The Highest Grossing Film Of The Pandemic

Just call Godzilla vs. Kong king of the pandemic box office. Not only is the Legendary MonsterVerse movie shattering pandemic-era box office opening weekend records, it's also setting records domestically, becoming the top grossing movie since the beginning of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Godzilla vs. Kong is a pandemic box office titan. The Adam Wingard-directed Warner Bros. monster movie has earned more than $350 million globally, putting it on track to surpass Tenet's $363 million worldwide total sometime next week. But domestically, Godzilla vs. Kong has already beat Tenet, with last Friday bringing the Legendary MonsterVerse movie to a $69.5 million total, edging out the previous domestic pandemic-era champion, Tenet, which finished its run with $58.2 million.

But Godzilla vs. Kong's worldwide success is even more impressive when you consider that most major markets in Europe (except Spain) and Brazil are still closed amid coronavirus lockdowns, and the film only collected an estimated 25% from China's box office, per Deadline. The film was released in 39 markets worldwide and brought in $37.480 million over the past weekend to add up to a $357.8 million total international gross, cementing Godzilla vs. Kong as the clear-cut winner in these pandemic box office times. And this success comes even with the film's controversial HBO Max day-and-date release.

But even with those high numbers (for pandemic times), could Godzilla vs. Kong make back its money? According to Deadline, yes. The net production cost for Godzilla vs. Kong was $160 million. If you look just at what it's made at the box office so far and what it cost upfront, it's made a profit. But owing to that darned HBO Max day-and-date release (which includes some complicated issues with licensing fees) and shared revenue between Warner Bros. and Legendary, and what have you, some extra math is required. Thankfully, Deadline does all that and comes to this conclusion:

Total up all the revenues, and that brings GvK to $326.4M. Substract the $160M production cost and an estimated global P&A of $70M (because Europe and Brazil aren't open), and that brings the movie's current projected profit to $96.4M before off-the-tops, interest, and overhead.

So yes, it's a profit for Godzilla vs. Kong. Not a huge one, but a fairly significant one during the COVID-19 pandemic. And perhaps we'll see those numbers rise even more as more theaters are set to reopen due to the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and the increased vaccine rollout.