One of their key people is a marketing genius. Until recently she was the one who greenlit movies.
https://www.warnerbros.com/studio/executives/sue-kroll
Lego Batman.. One of the best reviewed and liked kids movies.. Only kids movie in the market.. can't deliver a sub 30% drop for its entire run.. And the opening weekend wasn't that big also, so..
Yeah, weak compared to expectations from a 185m movie, but fine if you consider the circumstances. You got a streak of hyped movies and Kong got the short straw.
Backfired? Nobody is talking about it. This was smart, tbh. Set up screenings with couple of days between them and let the reviews flow. If the embargo was lifted one week before release and a chunk of reviews hit the net, there would have been more eyes on the rotten tomatoes score.
Oh.. interesting..
And don't take Deadline's report too seriously. Their Kong at 53m and Logan at 35m is based on matinees. Last week Logan was underestimated with 72m projection.
I don't know about the movie (Seeing it tonight), but MAN, the Godzilla marketing campaign was X100 times better. Gareth Edwards visuals are insane and the trailer idea is really good.
That Barca-PSG match really hurt Kong in France. That was an historic match. I wouldn't be surprised if people cancelled their tickets as the match progressed.