“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” gets its paws all over the damn dirty box office with No. 1 debut
The fourth installment of the rebooted franchise pulled in $129 million globally.
Apes rule, humans drool — at least at this weekend's box office.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth installment of the rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise, which opened this week, scored $56.5 million domestically to clinch the top spot. Internationally, the sequel to 2017's War for the Planet of the Apes grossed $72.5 million, for a global debut of $129 million.
In director Wes Ball's Kingdom, set 300 years after the last film, apes have taken over but live in isolated colonies, while humans have regressed into feral creatures. When an ape king named Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) begins attacking and enslaving other ape clans, twisting the legendary Caesar's teachings for his own gain, a young chimp named Noa (Owen Teague) embarks on a harrowing journey with mysterious human Nova (Freya Allen) to fight for a future in which apes and humans can coexist once more.
Related: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes cast had a 'running joke' about how many bananas they ate on set
Teague was particularly inspired by his time on the set of the movie and documented his experience shooting, from the first day to the last, which he later shared with Entertainment Weekly.
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"I would have a few moments free," Teague told EW. "I brought my dad's old film camera from 1970, something to set every day with me, and shot eight or nine rolls of film over the course of the production — partially because I like shooting 35 millimeter, and partially because it felt safer than just taking pictures on my phone, as things can be strict with that."
Dropping to second place in its second week of release, Ryan Gosling's The Fall Guy earned $13.7 million to bring its domestic total to $49.7 million ($103.7 million globally). The $130 million amuse-bouche to summer blockbuster season got off to a rough start with a $28.5 million opening, coming in under expectations.
Meanwhile, the Zendaya-led Challengers, which cost about a third to make as The Fall Guy, is aging gracefully, having earned $4.7 million in its third week of release, for a domestic cume of $38 million ($68.7 million globally).
The horror film Tarot took in $3.5 million in its second week out, for a domestic total of $12 million ($20.2 million globally). And rounding out the box office was Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which pulled in $2.5 million, adding to its seven-week domestic total of $191.8 million ($558.7 million globally).
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.