At this stage, the 2024 box office is lagging 24% behind this same point in 2023. It’s going to be another down year for the industry, and it’s one that theaters can ill-afford. But between last year’s strikes and audience habits changing, this year’s fate is all but sealed. Unfortunately, that’s put a lot of unfair pressure on the summer box office to overdeliver with a relatively weak slate. That hasn’t happened, leaving many theater owners to search for answers, so this movie is truly one of the few bright spots in a rough year.
“Kingdom” is unlikely to catch any of the installments from the previous trilogy, but it will finish much closer to “War for the Planet of the Apes ($490.7 million worldwide) and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” ($481.8 million worldwide) than it will “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” ($710 million worldwide). That said, Ball’s film should have no issue clearing $400 million worldwide. Against a $160 million budget and with far less help from China, that’s a damn fine result. It should be enough to convince Disney to pull the trigger on a sequel sooner rather than later.
Now, whether that sequel can break out like “Dawn” did in 2014 is a much bigger, complicated question. We know for sure that “Kingdom” planted the seeds for a sequel, should the powers that be decide that’s something they would like to explore. At this point, it feels like a safe bet. Apes together strong, as it were.
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is in theaters now.