Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has continued the franchise's No. 1 streak. The new movie, which was directed by Wes Ball and stars Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, and William H. Macy, is the tenth movie in the overall Planet of the Apes franchise and the fourth in the series of reboot prequels that began in 2011. Taking place about three centuries after the events of the previous movie, the sequel follows a young ape who goes on an adventure that teaches him that his understanding of the relationship between apes and humans may not be entirely correct.

Per Deadline, the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes box office is currently projected to close out its opening weekend with a 3-day total between $52-55 million. Even at the lower bound of its range, this total is more than enough for the movie to take No. 1 at the domestic box office during its debut weekend. While it was the weekend's only new tentpole release, it has nevertheless defeated holdover titles including The Fall Guy and Challengers to claim the top spot.

How The Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes Opening Compares To The Rest Of The Franchise

The Planet Of The Apes Box Office Is Still Going Strong

With the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes release, it seems that the summer movie season is properly heating up after stumbling out of the gate with the lukewarm debut of the action-comedy The Fall Guy. If the current projections for the upcoming Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga hold true, it could also be the highest-grossing opening weekend of May 2024. However, the movie is performing well even when compared to the previous entries in the franchise, which were all released in the pre-pandemic period.

In addition to keeping up the reboot franchise's streak of opening at No. 1, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will have an opening weekend on par with the majority of the recent Planet of the Apes movies. The only exception is the second movie, 2014's Dawn, which opened $16.3 million higher than the second-highest debut so far and went on to become the highest-grossing movie of the entire expanded 10-movie franchise. Below, see how the opening weekend of Kingdom compares to all the other movies in the reboot quadrilogy:

With the exception of Dawn's spike, the box office for the Apes franchise has overall been rather consistent. This means that if it keeps up with Rise and War, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will likely gross somewhere north of $475 million if it isn't dinged by its B Cinemascore, which is the lowest of the four movies. If it hits that whopping total, it would be the fourth highest-grossing movie of the year so far behind Kung Fu Panda 4 ($521.3 million), Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($548.4 million), and Dune: Part Two ($708.7 million).

Source: Deadline

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

PG-13

Action

Sci-Fi

Set several years after the events of War for the Planet of the Apes, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the next installment in the Apes saga. Ape clans have taken up residence in the oasis that Caesar sought to colonize, but humans have reverted to their animalistic nature in their absence. Now battling between enslavement and freedom, outliers in the Ape clans will take sides in a newly burgeoning society.

Director

Wes Ball

Release Date

May 10, 2024

Studio(s)

20th Century , Chernin Entertainment , Oddball Entertainment , Shinbone Productions

Distributor(s)

20th Century

Writers

Patrick Aison , Josh Friedman , Rick Jaffa , Amanda Silver

Cast

Kevin Durand , Freya Allan , Peter Macon , Owen Teague , Eka Darville , Sara Wiseman , Neil Sandilands

Franchise(s)

Planet of the Apes

Sequel(s)

Planet of the Apes , Beneath the Planet of the Apes , Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) , Conquest of the Planet of the Apes , Battle for the Planet of the Apes

prequel(s)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes , dawn of the Planet of the apes movie , War for the Planet of the Apes

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