Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire [Japanese] Box Office Watch (07/04/2024)

Japanese Box Office (as of 07/04/2024): 1,709,661,970 Yen (1.71 Billion Yen) ($11.03 Million)

Japanese Box Office Attendance (as of 07/04/2024): 1,168,460 (1.17 Million)

Worldwide Box Office (as of 07/04/2024): 89.5 Billion Yen (~$570 Million)

07/04/2024:
And this is it. Godzilla x Kong has either ended its theatrical run or it's just making so little that it's no longer being tracked. The final numbers from last week remain the same.

Being almost the polar opposite of Godzilla Minus One in terms of success, Godzilla x Kong ends its run with 1.71 Billion Yen ($11.03 Million) the lowest-grossing Monsterverse film in Japan. It is the 7th least attended Godzilla movie in Japanese box office history and the 4th least-attended live-action Godzilla film in Japanese box office history.

Charts final.

06/18/2024
The 8th weekend of Godzilla x Kong in Japanese theaters finally broke 1.70 Billion Yen with 1.71 Billion Yen ($11.16 Million). It is currently at an estimated 1.17 Million in attendance. (Movie Web Media Editor-and-Chief) Despite the movement, it continues to be the 7th least-attended Godzilla film of all time for nearly four weeks. The question is whether or not it can crawl fast enough to tie or surpass Tokyo SOS.

06/10/2024:
7th weekend in Japan and Godzilla x Kong is all but dead outside the top 10. It contributed very little to the Worldwide achievement of becoming the highest-grossing Monsterverse film in the world. (Deadline) The last week saw it jump from 1.67 Billion Yen to 1.69 Billion Yen ($11.03 Million). Its attendance went from 1.14 Million last week to just under 1.16 Million. (Movie Web Media Editor-and-Chief) It has barely passed Attack on Titan: Part II in gross but lags too far behind it, and Godzilla vs. Kong's attendance to surpass them. Tokyo SOS's attendance is in range, but it's unlikely it will pass the 2003 flop at this point.

Charts updated.

06/03/2024:
For its 6th weekend in Japan, Godzilla x Kong had no rebound into the top 10. It accumulated 30 Million Yen over the last 7 days for a total of 1.67 Billion Yen ($10.9 Million). Its attendance has climbed from 1.11 Million last week to 1.14 Million. (Movie Web Media Editor-and-Chief) It still lags behind Godzilla: Tokyo SOS's 1.20 Million and Godzilla vs. Kong's 1.27 Million.

Due to how little movement there's been, it remains the 7th least-attended Godzilla film. (4th least-attended live action.)

Included is how each of the recent live action Godzilla movies did by their 6th weekend in Japan.

6th Weekend Comparisons:
Shin Godzilla:
6.02 Billion Yen / $58.4 Million / 3.74M Attendance
Godzilla Minus One:
4.15 Billion Yen / $28.5 Million / 2.70M Attendance
Shin Ultraman:
3.84 Billion Yen / $29.7 Million / 2.57M Attendance
Godzilla 2014:
2.99 Billion Yen / $29.3 Million / 2.09M Attendance
Godzilla: King of the Monsters:
2.70 Billion Yen / $25.6 Million / 1.91M Attendance
Godzilla vs. Kong:
1.81 Billion Yen / $16.5 Million / 1.20M Attendance
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire:
1.67 Billion Yen / $10.9 Million / 1.14M Attendance

05/27/2024:
Godzilla x Kong's 5th weekend in Japan saw it knocked out of the Top 10, making it the fastest live-action Godzilla film to fall out of the Top 10 in the last 10 years. Over the last week, it has jumped from 1.56 Billion Yen to 1.63 Billion Yen ($10.64 Million). (Movie Web Media Editor-and-Chief) Its attendance has finally broken 1.10 Million with 1,108,163 in attendance--short of Godzilla: Tokyo SOS and over 160,000 behind its predecessor, Godzilla vs. Kong.

With it being outside of the top 10 it'll be tougher to track and it's unlikely it will move many more numbers. Though there's a slim chance it could pass 2003's Tokyo SOS, it's likely to remain the 7th least-attended Godzilla film.

Charts updated.

05/20/2024:
Weekend 4 for Godzilla x Kong in Japan saw it drop from 5th to 9th with a total of 1.56 Billion Yen. ($10.2 Million) It finally crossed the 1 million attendance milestone with 1.06 Million, having beaten Pacific Rim's gross and attendance. It has beaten Godzilla Final Wars in terms of attendance as well. It is now the 32nd highest-attended Godzilla movie out of 38. (Out of 35 live action.)

Unfortunately, it's starting to lose theaters and once it drops out of the top 10 it will be much more difficult to track. (Although not many movies move the needle very far once they drop out of the top 10 anyway.) It seems unlikely it will hit GvK's numbers, but if it does it will be a crawl. (Movie Web Media Editor-and-Chief, FranSpeech)

05/14/2024a:
By its 3rd weekend Godzilla x Kong has dropped from #2 to #5 at the box office. It sits at 1.442 Billion Yen ($9.4 Million) and has still yet to break 1 million in attendance with 978,118. It is roughly tied with Godzilla vs. Megalon as the second least-attended, live-action Godzilla film. It should finally break 1 million next week and surpass Pacific Rim's final gross of 1.48 Billion Yen. (Movie Web Media Editor-and-Chief, FranSpeech)

Third weekend comparisons:
Shin Godzilla:
3.36 Billion Yen/$32.6 Million/>2.59M attendance
Godzilla Minus One:
2.85 Billion Yen/$18.9 Million/~1.84M attendance
Shin Ultraman:
2.69 Billion Yen/$21.2 Million/1.77M attendance
Godzilla: King of the Monsters:
2.21 Billion Yen/$20.5 Million/1.51M attendance
Godzilla 2014:
2.05 Billion Yen/$20.1 Million/1.42M attendance
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire:
1.44 Billion Yen/$9.4 Million/0.98 attendance
Godzilla vs. Kong:
1.40 Billion Yen/$12.9 Million/0.90M attendance

05/14/2024a:
In its 2nd weekend, Godzilla x Kong remained at #2 with 1.266 Billion Yen ($7.45 Million) and an attendance of 856,851 in 11 days. (Movie Web Media Editor-and-Chief, FranSpeech) At the moment it is the lowest-attended live-action Godzilla movie in Japan, but that should change by next weekend.

Original Post:
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire opened on the first weekend of Golden Week, a series of Japanese Holidays taking place from April 27th-May 6th. It was an excellent decision by Toho to open it during a big holiday week, however it also meant stiff competition from other movies.

Godzilla x Kong opened at #2 for the weekend. It's opening day was a record low for the Monsterverse--125,000,000 Yen ($800,000) only beating the anime films at the box office for the weekend with a 3-day total of 467,000,000 Yen ($3 Million) and a 4-Day Holiday total of 622,000,000 Yen ($3.9 Million). It's 3-day weekend attendance is 306,000 and its 4-day Holiday attendance is an estimated 417,000. (Movie Web Media Editor-and-Chief, FranSpeech)

Godzilla Minus One has had the largest opening day of any of the Reiwa or Monsterverse movies in Japan with a massive 1.04 Billion Yen ($6.9 Million). This is the first time a Godzilla movie has broken 1 Billion in its opening weekend. (Eiga Ranking) The opening day was very frontloaded due to being a national holiday in Japan. (The Japan Times) However, Godzilla Minus One is currently the best-reviewed Godzilla film in Japan, pointing to strong legs.

Japan's most successful Godzilla movie of the era was Shin Godzilla, which opened to 845,675,500 Yen ($8.2 Million) for the weekend and finished with a staggering 8.25 Billion Yen ($79.2 Million). The biggest opening goes to Minus One with 455,000,000 Yen ($3.05M). Before Minus One, the biggest opening weekend for Godzilla, and subsequently a Monsterverse film, was Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which opened to 918,860,100 Yen ($8.6 Million) but only finished with 2.84 Billion Yen ($25.8 Million).*

*To those confused as to why Shin Godzilla and Godzilla: King of the Monsters opening weekends exchanged to a higher USD gross than Godzilla Minus One, it’s because the Yen is much weaker today than it was in 2016 and 2019. In 2016 Godzilla Minus One’s 1.04 Billion would’ve translated to $9.8 Million. In 2023, Shin Godzilla’s 845,675,500 would’ve been $5.7 Million and King of the Monsters would have exchanged to $6.2 Million. For comparison, the chart below gives the USD exchange of what these older movies would be in 2023.

OPENING DAY COMPARISON
1) Godzilla Minus One - 455,000,000 Yen ($3.05M in 2023)

2) Godzilla: King of the Monsters - 241,905,100 Yen ($2.2M in 2019, $1.61M in 2023)

3) Shin Godzilla - 221,064,800 Yen ($2.11M in 2016, $1.48M in 2023)

4) Godzilla '14 - 175,033,800 Yen ($1.70M in 2014, $1.17M in 2023)

5) Godzilla vs. Kong - 154,674,750 Yen ($1.4M in 2021, $1.04M in 2023)

6) Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - 125,000,000 Yen ($860K in 2023, $800K in 2024)

7) Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters - 41,362,500 Yen ($382,000 in 2017, $276,900 in 2023)

8) Godzilla: The Planet Eater - 31,783,700 Yen ($270,000 in 2018, $212,778 in 2023)

9) Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle - 25,000,000 Yen ($225,000 in 2018, $167,360 in 2023)

How to gauge success based on attendance:
1 million or under - Flop
1 million+ - Disappointment
2 million+ - Minor or Commercial Success
3 million+ - Major Hit
4 million+ - Blockbuster
5 million+ - Uber-Blockbuster