Box office preview: ‘The First Omen,’ ‘Monkey Man’ make moves against ‘Godzilla x Kong’

Edward Douglas
·5 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Easter is behind us, we’re into a new month, and we’re fully into spring … and yet, the box office might be hitting another lull. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

There aren’t many scenarios where “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” doesn’t win its second weekend at #1. Even with a steep drop from its Easter opening, it should still be able to bring in another $30 million this coming weekend, which will be hard to beat.

More from GoldDerby

It might be a coin flip on which of the other two new wide releases might do better, but I have to give a slight edge to “The First Omen,” 20th Century’s prequel to a horror franchise that began all the way back in 1976 with the horror film, “The Omen,” directed by Richard Donner pre-“Superman.” That led to two sequels in 1978 and 1981, even though the original movie wasn’t a phenomenon on the level of “The Exorcist” a few years earlier. In 2006, Fox released a remake of Donner’s film on June 6, 2006, a date that proved popular with a $12.6 million opening day, leading to $36.3 million in its opening week. Even with that big an opening, it still only made $54.6 million in North America. After that, there was also a single-season series called “Damien,” which never really took off, which might make one wonder why someone at 20th Century thought now was the time to make this prequel.

That said, this is a big movie for Nell Tiger Free, star of M. Night Shyamalan‘s Apple TV+ series “Servant,” as she plays a nun who travels to Rome to join the church there, only to discover there are dark secrets afoot. Directed by Arkasha Stevenson, who has directed episodes of “Legion” and “Brand New Cherry Flavor,” the movie should benefit from the marketing push given to it by parent company Disney, who have literally had three months to promote it. It is a little odd that it’s coming out so soon after Sydney Sweeney‘s “Immaculate,” which was generally well-received before becoming Neon’s biggest opener to date. The success of that and David Dastmalchian‘s “Late Night with the Devil” shows that there’s an audience for exorcism and possession movies, so it’s likely that “The First Omen” can bring in $15 or $16 million this weekend to take second place, well behind “Godzilla x Kong.”

SEE Box office hits: Every movie that made more than $100 million

Offering some serious genre competition is “Monkey Man,” written and directed by and starring Dev Patel, the acclaimed star of the Oscar Best Picture winner “Slumdog Millionaire,” who received an Oscar nomination for “Lion” in 2017. This is a very different movie for Patel, as it’s a straight-up action revenge-thriller, more like something we might see from Liam Neeson, although Patel is probably better known for prestige projects like “The Personal History of David Copperfield” and Wes Anderson‘s recent Oscar-winning short, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.”

A few months back, Jordan Peele came on board as a producer and brought the film over to Universal from its original home at Netflix, so that it would get a theatrical release. The movie then premiered at the SXSW Film and TV Festival, where it received mostly favorable reviews, which probably helped drive up interest for a very quick release just a few weeks later. In the film, Patel plays a man whose village was wiped out when he was a kid, so he takes on the role of a mythic Hindi hero to avenge them.

Patel and the premise could very well bring in some of the Indian-American audiences who regularly go to theaters for Bollywood and Telugu-language releases, but this still seems like a tougher sell, even with Peele involved, for it to break out and be a huge hit, especially against “The First Omen.” It will probably end up in the $11 to 13 million range this weekend.

Two movies expanding wider this weekend include Sony Pictures Classics’ British comedy “Wicked Little Letters,” starring Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley, as well as Luc Besson‘s action-thriller “DogMan,” starring Caleb Landry Jones. The former at least should offer some counter-programming, while “DogMan” is likely to get lost as it tries to take on the similarly-titled and themed “Monkey Man.”

SEE Grab the popcorn and sound off in our movie forums

A few other films hitting limited release, include Ned Benson‘s “The Greatest Hits,” starring Lucy Boynton (“Bohemian Rhapsody”), the future Superman David Corenswet, and Justin H. Min from “Beef.”

Believe it or not, cancelled filmmaker Woody Allen is back with his 50th feature film “Coup de Chance,” which is all in French with a French cast, having already debuted in France last year after a premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Another long-time veteran, Ken Loach, delivers what is reported to be his final film, with “The Old Oak” starring Dave Turner as the owner of a British village pub who finds himself at odds with the locals when he supports the town’s newly-emigrated Syrian refugees, including Ebla Mari‘s Yara.

Léa Seydoux & George MacKay star in French filmmaker Bertrand Bonello‘s Henry James-inspired “The Beast,” which will also open in select cities, and lastly, there’s Australian-Macedonian filmmaker Goran Stolevski with the Macedonian family drama “Housekeeping for Beginners,” which will hit select theaters.

Check back on Sunday to see how the movies above end up doing at the box office.

SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions

Best of GoldDerby

Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.