Sometimes I really do wonder if Tom Hiddleston is only internet-famous. There are still doubts in my mind if Tom is enough of a “name” to carry a movie. I suspect that even casual entertainment-consumers know who Tom is vaguely through the Marvel movies, and now people know him as “that guy who dated Taylor Swift.” I thought about that during his Golden Globes speech, where so many of the tweets about him were “Who is this douche?” Anyway, now Tom has added one more positive association on his Fame Resume: star of a successful monkey movie. Kong: Skull Island opened well.
Warner Bros. and Legendary’s Kong: Skull Island roared louder than expected in its North American box-office debut, scaling $61 million from 3,846 theaters to top Wolverine threequel Logan. Kong: Skull Island hopes to restore the world’s most famous ape to glory and build a new film franchise, with a Kong v. Godzilla installment already in the works. The one major caveat: The movie, costing at least $185 million to make before a major marketing spend, will likely need to earn $500 million globally to land in the black.
Overseas, Kong: Skull Island opened to $81.6 million from 65 markets — minus China, where it hits theaters March 24 — for a global bow of $142.6 million. It came in No. 1 almost everywhere and scored the biggest opening of all time in Vietnam ($2.2 million), where chaos ensued at the pic’s premiere late last week after a huge model of the primate outside the theater caught on fire.
Heading into the weekend, the male-fueled Kong: Skull Island was expected to earn $45 million-$50 million in the U.S.. Crossing the $60 million threshold is no doubt a big relief for Warners and Legendary. The pic is the second title in their monster universe after Godzilla, which debuted to $93 million in May 2014. That film ultimately earned $529 million worldwide against a production budget of $160 million.
“On these kind of movies that have big Fridays, you would expect to be down on Saturday. We were up 19 percent,” said Warners president of domestic distribution Jeff Goldstein. “We ended up in a fantastic place compared to where we thought we would be. The marketing came together in a huge way.”
Here’s the thing: if it had bombed, Tom would have gotten some of the blame. Now that’s successful, it’s a mixed bag. He’ll either be seen as “capable of opening a movie” or people will rightly feel like Kong is the star and the actors are part of an ensemble. Even in the latter interpretation, Tom will get some credit for being part of ensemble. And to be fair, the majority of the promotional work landed on his shoulders, Brie Larson’s shoulders and Sam Jackson’s shoulders, so I do think Tom deserves some of the credit. Even though the studio was actively seeking to appeal to the men/boys, I suspect that the film opened bigger than expected because women were okay with going to a Kong movie starring Tommy Hiddles and Brie Larson. So will Kong reach the break-even box office of $500 million? Probably.
Photos courtesy of ‘Kong: Skull Island’.
Not mind blowing but the movie shocked me with how decent it was. I saw it at a screening last week and went because 1. It’s free and 2. I love Brie Larson. Surprisingly not terrible so I’m not surprised it did well this weekend. Since I saw Kong at a screening I saw Get Out for the third time to help it move to the 100 million mark.
Can’t wait to see Get Out it starts here on Friday I will be there Saturday afternoon.
I just found out that Get Out was filmed Right. Here. In. Mobile. and I didn’t know because we have the crappiest news outlets in the world-a three day a week newspaper with very little local reporting. We have a lot of filming here and I never bother to visit the set, but I think I would’ve turned out for Jordan Peele. Darn.
Me too – cannot wait to see it!
And Daniel Kaluuya was in an excellent and underrated TV series called Babylon.
I really don’t get the appeal of Get Out. It was not good.
Finally saw it last night, in a packed theater. We screamed and laughed and screamed together for two hours. I usually stay away from genres with the potential for gore, but I’m so, so glad I saw this in theaters.
YES! I was rather surprised. I try to still hold on to the Tom that made me love&hate Loki at the same time and then catch me off guard with his performance in High Rise to actually to do it again with the Night Manager. I would like to roll my eyes @ the Swift thing – punt intended — but remember RDJ excellent quip about “I love T.S. (Tony Stark) — that was awesome.
Kong is the star of the monkey movie, as he should be.
We went Friday night for IMAX 3D. Large theater was packed with mostly groups of guys in their 20s. The group of Chinese guys (theater was in Boston’s Chinatown) seemed to be having the time of their lives, screaming and shouting.
Any way, they’re off to Japan for more promotion. We’re serving sake, sushi, mochi and boxes of Yoku Moku cookies.
Even if LEGS wasn’t in Coventry, I wouldn’t pay to see a monkey movie. But I believe Major is going this weekend – and yes, for the monkey not the ensemble. He and his new girlfriend warmed up for it by sitting in my living room and watching some documentary called Rise of the Warrior Apes, involving chimpanzees cracking open the skulls of smaller monkeys and sharing the brains around and beating each other to death for no discernible reason.
I ventured to suggest that this wasn’t the ideal romantic way to get into the whole dating thing for the first time, but he just regarded me with that mixture of scorn and pity adolescents reserve for their ageing parents. So I shut up.
Ha Ha Ha, courting is not what it used to be.
*scans catch up tv for rise of the warrior apes*
Your family deserves a mini-series. BBC?
It’s not me, is it? It is weird to have a first date that involves sitting in a living room with your mother and watching violent chimpanzees on television? Right?
He even made everyone a cup of tea.
P.G. Tips I hope…
Oh, that just made me actually LOL! I really AM old. No, sadly: Yorkshire.
Honestly, Sixer, your stories of the Sixlets give me life. The vision of Major sitting in the parlour with his first official date is just out and out delightful, and to add cups of tea to that!!!! Well, really, if she wasn’t simply bowled over by his sweetness then she doesn’t deserve such a fine chap. You are truly raising such wonderful examples of the upstanding young men that will be needed for the brave new world that is looming. I am sure Mr Sixer has a goodly hand in it all too. More stories please! And how is your rhubarb going? I wish I could grow it, but I tried and it just turned up its tootsies in this warm California climate. I hear it likes lots of compost.
Major’s girlfriend will soon have things well in hand.
As far as giant monkey battling beasties movies go, it was a lot of fun. The plot is essentially, we just found this island and we’re going to walk across it. Oh wait, they lied to us and there are beasties here and now we have to run across while battling beasties and each other. So, no real plot but fun.
PS cousin lives in Coventry, RI.
Mr Sixer has buggered off up north (higher up than Coventry!) for work for a few days, so he has missed all the neo-romance thus far.
My current position is this: leave the iMax experience to da yoof and concentrate on rhubarb. I’m not on shaky ground with the rhubarb.
Lassie seems nice. She rolls her eyes at Major more than I do and seeing her do it made me snigger to myself (while pretending I hadn’t noticed).
Ha, Sixer! I really look foward to reading your comments everday 😄.
@Sixer: thank you for being.
Saw it this weekend but it wasn’t that great. Some of it seemed a bit cheesy and they all seemed to look like they weren’t actually looking at anything or empty space.. Brie is really pretty though. SLJ just seems to sort of play the same person unhinged.. lol
Really enjoyed this film; Hiddles was on fine fettle as an athletic heroic sort and nice chemistry with Brie. He does do ‘tender’ pretty well, it has to be said. Great ensemble cast, John C R is always a treat. All In all; worth a tenner.
I am on the side that this film succeeding had nothing to do with him as it is an ensemble cast. He was capable enough but you did not get to see enough of him to truly care about his character more than the other characters.
It was good though. I saw it in IMAX ( I paid $22.00 dollars for that stupid ticket) and felt that it was worth it. It needed more Tian Jing and Corey Hawkins because I liked both of their characters and thought those two were cute together. In fact, their characters should have been switched with Bree’s and Tom’s characters and it would have been much better to me. Other than that, it was a solid action flick.
I liked their characters too. the way they played off each other, and think we shall see the two of them again in the Monsterverse.
I hope so.
I agree that with films like these you cannot credit or blame the actors for the movies success/failure. Their fans can bring or take away a few million for each actor on a wide release, but no way you can rest an 185 million dollar film + advertising on the actors. I think this film relies heavily on the relation to the future Godzilla movie.
Small bit of trivia…they managed to set fire to King Kong at the Premier in Saigon. Oops!
http://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/fire-erupts-at-kong-skull-island-premiere-in-saigon-3553029.html
It was filmed in Vietnam, for info.
In 2017, an actor does not have to have major name recognition [which in the US takes decades] to get a variety of roles, some of them starring. This is Hiddleston’s status currently. I hate to repeat myself, but his reputation within the industry is impeccable. As long as a directors think he is talented, his career will thrive. I have a good time on CB, but what really matters are publications such as VARIETY, DEADLINE, and THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Fame and name recognition are not the same as a respected career. Most Americans could not pick Brie Larson out of a lineup.
Totally agree.
And I wouldn’t be able to pick Brie Larson out of lineup of even just 3 people. I know nothing about her besides that she’s in this movie
It’s hard to think of any star who pulls in an audience on his/her name alone anymore. Maybe one or two. About the only sure things are franchises and family oriented animated films. I’m fine with actors picking up a paycheck on a blockbuster when they then go on to spend time on smaller, independent films.
Yes. One of the few is Tom Hanks in adult dramas, not blockbusters. Some former box office sure things who have come and gone: Tom Cruise, Will Smith. The Rock,Dwyane Johnson, does pretty well because he sticks to what he knows audiences like.
The movie year calendar has largely become Oscar prospects and blockbusters. Every now and then, we get a surprise hit like GET OUT. My daughter and her girlfriend loved it. I have yet to see it, but my admiration for Peele and his former partner Key, knows no bounds.
Yes. And the rise of streaming means that the lazy like me who live rurally and have a trek to the nearest cinema have no real reason to do it often unless it’s for an iMax spectacular. Cos we just wait until we can see the films on the posh TV in the house and operate on a year-behind-everyone-else basis, even with actors we like.
None of the cast gets credit for opening this movie, that’s crazy! By that logic Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Johnson are much bigger stars than the Kong cast. After all, they opened Godzilla to $93 million right? Kong opened the movie, the rest got a paycheck.
Only Sam Jackson and John C Riley made any impression anyway. Brie was fine but underwritten and Hiddleston was fine but more a glorified tour guide than anything else. Not remotely believable as a solider.
My expectations were pretty d**m low, and I really liked it! The 2014 Godzilla was, for me, kind of slow, and even though there’s a bit of cheese with this movie it’s DEFINITELY not slow! I was stuck the most by the direction; beautifully shot and paced. Jordan Voght-Roberts should feel very proud. Thiddles and the rest of the cast were solid, with John c Reilly as the clear standout by a mile.
I saw it with my son on Friday. I enjoyed it and I liked Tom H. My son didn’t love it as he thought he would. We also saw Logan the Wolverine movie and we both like this better. Overall it Kong wasn’t a bad movie, yeah Kong was the big star
I think he’s definitely known in the UK because of The Night Manager, maybe not so much in the US. I’m really confused about this film, it seems to have had a marmite mix of reactions.
Awww. Good for Tom! I think he’s so friggin unaware and funny but I’m happy that the movie did well. Plus brie larson is the bees knees so I believe she has a lot to do with the success too!
Remakes/Reboots/Franchises arent good ways to measure star power. Those movies always find a niche. Even if they arent mad succesful, you know nostalgia/fandom alone will sell you enough tickets. That’s why they keep making them. Because they are still profitable.
Much like CHemsworth, all of Hiddles’ succesful movies werent succesful because of him.
Get a slight impression from the article that some were hoping it would fail.
At least the studios know that Tom will always step up to the plate regarding promo work, with a smile on his face and no moans.
I watched a couple of promo interviews and Hiddleston indeed never complains. Samuel L. Jackson complains a lot about the direction and Brie regrets the lack of luxury in the jungle, but they – especially Sam – can get away with it because of the way they say it – Samuel is naturally cool and Brie sounds like she’s goofing all the time. I don’t think those same complaints would work if Tom uttered them.
I think Brie has a problem with lack of bathrooms – see the video I posted below!
Well, I saw Kong this weekend and my local theater was fairly crowded, so I’m guessing that Tommy finally has a hit movie again, but, as always, his hit movies are always the worst ones. The script was, as always, abysmal, not to say incredibly silly, with every character filling a stock role that Hollywood pulls out of a drawer. Tommy looked like a dish, as always (another tragedy for womankind), and Brie Larson was boring, except for her quite extraordinary boob job. Silly script, no characterization, great special effects – Kong the undoubted star of the piece. Well, it was better than the last Godzilla, I will say that . . .
I agree with your assessment completely but it was still fairly enjoyable. Kong was very well imagined. Brie was a bit lame with her expressions and her role felt “token,” along with the “token” Chinese actress inserted for the Chinese market. Everyone, including the soldiers, had pretty much equal screen time.
good for him 🙂
I’m pretty sure the vast majority of viewers are not going to see this because it is a Tom Hiddleston movie; they are going to see it because they want to watch a massive CGI gorilla smash things and kill people.
He’s not even in it that much. It’s just marketing that makes the movie out to have a leading man. Kong or even John C Reilly probably had more screen time than Hiddles.
I liked this one:
https://youtu.be/P-zqFHehJIk
Fresh and funny. Good share 🙂
The huz and I watched it this weekend and enjoyed it. Kong is the star of the film and he was done very, very well. John C Reilly is the next most important character and the human whose story we were most emotionally invested in. Sammy Jackson was third in importance. The rest, including Hiddles were window dressing and looked gorgeous as such. Hiddles, Larson, Mitchell, Mann, Kebbell were lovely to watch on screen.
It was a popcorn flick and be sure and stay to the very end to see them set up the final showdown.
We also saw it this weekend and you summed it up perfectly.
Reilly’s the only one with a real backstory. And he is hilarious; many of his lines were improvised. There were hints that Goodman’s character had a backstory with what sounded like Godzilla but that wasn’t explored. Everyone else’s job was to just walk across the island and be chased by monsters. And if I had to walk across an island and be chased by monsters, I suppose I could do it with Tom, Thomas, Jason, Shea, Corey, Brie, and Lin.
I forgot to mention that the score was great!
I left wanting to watch Me Earl and the Dying Girl again to get my Thomas Mann fix. Not enough of him in Kong.
I’d rank Tommy’s “look” in Kong in his top 5 of all time. Up there with Coriolanus, Pine and Laing. He should keep the muscles.
The score was fantastic. I figured you would enjoy that tight bluish-green or greenish blue t-shirt that was clinging to him for dear life. Me & Earl & the Dying Girl was one of my favorites of the last few years and during Kong, I kept thinking: “See Thomas Mann, this is what happens when you don’t go to college for filmmaking!” And I need a Nixon bobble head.
Yes, I wanted that Nixon bobble head too!
I was really glad they didn’t make much of a romance between Conran & Weaver. Her character didn’t serve much purpose beyond “girlfriend”, but I did like the Kong connection she had.
And after seeing the Wonder Woman preview I’m even more excited to see that movie when it comes out this summer.
I liked it way more than Godzilla, which I caught on cable at some point. It needed just a little more character development to get raves from me, but that is almost always my complaint about monster movies. Another 5-10 minutes of non-monster action would have had me caring about the characters and whether or not they were going to get eaten.
No, it had a huge opening because CCR played in the trailer!
Love that tune. Reminds me of American Werewolf in London.
I saw it with my 13 year old son. We had a blast!
Colour me surprised. Colour me even more surprised after reading the comments here. Guess -someone’s- booking a cinema ticket.
If Chris Pratt could get a career boost out of that Jurassic Park muck Hiddleston should get his due for this, which is much better.
These monster films are super appealing in international markets and easy to market to overseas audiences, esp the big one, China.
Saw it yesterday and was pleasantly surprised and entertained. I really wasn’t expecting it to be very good.
I saw it with my family and we all really enjoyed it. John C. Riley was a scene stealer, but I enjoyed Brie Larson and Tom Hiddleston. Actually, I felt like the movie underused Hiddleston, but I enjoyed his character a lot.
The director is probably the one who will get most of the accolades. The critics who liked said hes made surprisingly smart blockbuster franchise . John Goodman and John C Reilly seems to get most of the attention (from critics). Tom and Brie will get most attention in celebrity/internet world.
Did I miss the interviews where he explained how it was like a Shakespearean tragedy?
Give it time!
I was actually surprised that I like the movie tbh – monster movies are not usually my thing, but it moved pretty fast and had plenty of action and “jump out of your seat” moments. Tom looked fantastic although both he and Brie were underutilized (I think there were a lot of scenes cut.) It is funny to read the Twitter feed about him in the last few days – lots of “hot” and “bae” and swooning in general. I can’t see how it would hurt his career – success rarely hurts!
Has anyone else notice a distinct lack of Luke this time round?
Luke has been with another big client – Emma Watson, as she goes about her Beauty and the Beast rounds. He’s had Victoria, another PR person from the same firm (which Luke is director of). But yeah – no Luke lately. Will that stop the “Luke is Tom’s boyfriend/husband” brigade? Probably not.
Luke has not been around for the last couple of pr trips…has not been to l.a. since last year….I wondered too but did see Victoria…really is there any truth to this Luke relationship rumor? it’s curious that TH would tell that brokenhearted story to GQ…saw TH in LA…he has that very happy look on that he was wearing when with TS….curious.
He looks very happy in Japan All smile and sunshine. Then again when he is not during promo? 🙂
Can’t wait to see it. Glad it’s gotten good reviews and now people can see the true face of Tom instead of seeing Loki.
In an interview with Eric Nam, Nam told a story that Jordan Vogt-Roberts said he would go to Korea if the Korean audiences reached a certain level, he then asked if Tom would go to Korea with Jordan. The answer was probably not because PR on Kong wraps up next week and he will then head home to work on a project that he can’t talk about. So, either re-shoots for Thor: Ragnorak, scenes for Avengers: Infinity Wars, end credit or cameo scenes for GOTG or SpiderMan or something completely new and different.
Think you’ve covered every eventuality there lightpurple! 😀
Or voice commentary for the Kong Blu-Ray package.
I think Toyko premier of Kong is next week…wonder if there will be a China premier? Avengers: Infintity Wars is filming in Georgia apparently with lots of scheduling problems…also Luke all over the Red Carpet in NYC with Emma and Beauty and the Beast premie last night.
Tokyo premier was last night.
Some of Infinity Wars will be shooting in Edinburgh next week through April 6. Also Tom has some sort of event with Eddie Redmayne this coming Sunday – probably in connection with Early Man, which is dropping a teaser trailer tomorrow.
They are now in Beijing…eating their way thru Asia – People Magazine article!
Man just watched KSI and it was a blast. I felt so sad for john c. Everybody was just facing lot of misunderstanding. I loved the spider scene. just wow. also loved the giant buffalo scene and how conrad/tom calmed the panicked soldier. brie was also good. I loved everybody body!
New early man trailer! It’s hilarious.
I really liked the movie and my friends and family members thought it was good as well. But one thing some in my family group noticed about Brie’s character (Mason Weaver) in the film=> When she was trying to lift away parts of a downed chopper off of the gigantic water buffalo creature, one of them commented: “Is this her Captain Marvel audition?!” A couple of folks who sat behind us yelled out, “Yeah! It sure looks like it!”.