It’s been a rather uneven year so far at the box office, with major hits such as Dune: Part Two and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire making up for under-performers such as The Fall Guy and Abigail. But everything went according to plan this weekend, as 20th Century Studios unleashed Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes globally. The fourth installment in the franchise’s reboot series, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Wes Ball and is set a few hundred years after the events of the reboot trilogy, which concluded in 2017.
With around $56 million domestically and another $72 million from overseas markets, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ cumulative global haul stands at $129 million after one weekend of release. This is a solid result for a movie that reportedly cost $160 million to produce, and doesn’t feature any big-name movie stars either playing motion-capture apes or live-action humans. Additionally, the industry has undergone a seismic change in the pandemic years, which meant that the movie’s box office success wasn’t set in stone. The Planet of the Apes franchise has already experienced one wave of obsolescence, but despite this uncertainty, the reboots seem to have captured the audience’s attention.
Domestically, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes delivered an opening in the same range as 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, directed by Rupert Wyatt, and 2017’s War of the Planet of the Apes, directed by Matt Reeves. Both movies concluded their theatrical runs with similar grosses as well; Rise made $481 million, while War made $490 million worldwide. The series’ highest-grossing installment remains Reeves’ Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which made over $200 million domestically and more than $700 million worldwide in 2014.
Rather admirably, each of the reboot movies has received stellar reviews, with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes following suit. The movie holds a “fresh” 80% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, just marginally behind Rise’s 82% score. Reeves’ two movies are beloved, with Dawn holding a 91% approval rating on RT, and War retaining a 94% score. Also worth mentioning is Tim Burton’s 2000 reboot film, which actually delivered a bigger domestic debut than Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, but failed to restart the franchise with a $362 million lifetime global haul and a 43% RT score.
Based on Pierre Boulle’s 1963 novel, the Planet of the Apes series began with Franklin J. Schaffner’s 1968 film, starring Charlton Heston. The movie grossed $33 million worldwide and spawned four sequels of diminishing returns. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes features Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, and William H. Macy. You can watch the film in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
