Yahoo Movies Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a box office hit, so what next?
Even after nearly 60 years, the Planet of the Apes franchise is still a reliable big hitter at the box office.
Nearly 60 years after Charlton Heston screamed at the fallen Statue of Liberty on a secluded beach in the distant future, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes just made $129m (£103m) worldwide in its opening weekend. This franchise is unkillable, unstoppable, and, at the box office, unbeatable.
This latest achievement by the Planet of the Apes franchise is arguably its most impressive to date. It has been seven years since the previous movie and this one arrives with very few recognisable stars in the ensemble cast. No Andy Serkis? No problem.
Kingdom is essentially a clean slate for the Apes franchise, introducing a raft of new simian stars. While the 2011 reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes gave us James Franco, Freida Pinto and Tom Felton's questionable American accent, it's the photorealistic animals that are the A-listers this time.
It's a gamble. But based on those early box office numbers, it seems like it might have paid off. So let's take a deeper look, all the way from — sing it with us — chimpan-A to chimpan-Z.
How did Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes do at the box office?
It's great news at the box office for director Wes Ball and his new corner of this franchise. The domestic opening weekend for the franchise landed at $56.5m (£45m). That's more than Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011 and the previous entry, War for the Planet of the Apes, in 2017. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes remains the high watermark with its $72.61m (£58m) opening.
So this is a great result for the new movie. The Apes franchise has always been a steady box office achiever, with the 1968 original film earning a hefty profit for 20th Century Fox. Even the widely derided Tim Burton reboot in 2021 managed a healthy global total of $362m (£289m).
The three movies in the 2010s trilogy starring Serkis as lead ape Caesar made an average of $557m (£445m) globally, and Kingdom is firmly on track to hit those numbers — and even go beyond them.
Kingdom's impressive debut is also the fourth highest opening weekend of the year to date, behind Dune Part Two, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and Kung Fu Panda 4. The apes have already left May's other big movie — Ryan Gosling stuntman actioner The Fall Guy — in the dust.
The Fall Guy has been widely reported as a box office disappointment, and it's easy to see why. Its budget is in a similar bracket to the spectacular CGI world of Kingdom — perhaps as a result of those movie star salaries — with most of the trades listing The Fall Guy at $130-$150m (£104-120m) and Apes at $160m (£128m).
Expectations around The Fall Guy were certainly high. After all, in Gosling and Emily Blunt, the movie boasted a star from both halves of last year's Barbenheimer juggernaut. However, the presence of those A-listers did nothing to boost the action-comedy tale's numbers. It only managed $27.7m (£22.1m) in its debut weekend.
In fact, The Fall Guy floundering may well have opened the door for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. It's possible that Apes' success is down to the lack of other options at cinemas, with this spring lacking a behemoth from mega-franchises like the MCU, DC or Fast and Furious. There's no big family film right now either, with Kung Fu Panda 4 fading away in its 10th week.
While Hollywood is stinging a little from The Fall Guy's struggles, the signs are good for Hollywood's summer of sequels. All five of the year's top openings — Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire came in just behind Apes — are franchise follow-ups. The industry's eyes will now turn to Mad Max prequel Furiosa.
Will there be another Planet of the Apes movie?
It's pretty safe to say that there will be more Planet of the Apes movies. In fact, director Wes Ball told Yahoo UK that he has his eyes firmly set on the 2,000 years of ape history between his movie and Heston's arrival in the original.
"We've been talking about it for years now, this movie, and where ultimately we want to go and and setting up things subtly that we think we can pay off in the future movies. There's plenty of stuff to do there, so we're excited and hopeful that we can continue on with this series and contribute something to this crazy franchise that's lasted for so long," he said.
"We've got a lot of story to tell before [the original]. We've still have to blow up the Statue of Liberty. We've still got to erase almost all signs of humanity, we've got to get apes to decide to erase all concept, all knowledge, of what humans were for some reason, right?"
Watch: Wes Ball discusses the future of Planet of the Apes
As long ago as 2022, Disney were reportedly interested in making Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes the first part of a new trilogy of Apes adventures. Ball certainly seems up for the challenge and one of the most impressive things about Kingdom is how much it widens the canvas, leaving plenty more to explore.
This franchise has existed for almost 60 years thanks to its incredible capacity for reinvention. Only a fool would bet against a bright future for the apes. And that means things don't look good for those remaining human beings, or the Statue of Liberty.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is out now in cinemas.
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