Yahoo Movies Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was May's biggest movie
May hasn't been a vintage month for cinemas as critically-acclaimed movies like Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and The Fall Guy haven't quite ignited the box office as expected.
There's still been some success to be found with the latest outing in the increasingly-reliable Planet of the Apes series and moderate family hits with The Garfield Movie off to a decent start.
But which movie came out on top at the box office this month?
In our regular monthly column, Digital Spy takes a look back at the past month's new releases to reveal the biggest box-office hits, as well as what the highest-grossing movies of the year are so far.
(Spoiler alert, it's still Dune: Part Two.)
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes box office
US: $129,984,968
International: $175,243,842
Worldwide: $305,228,810
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes landed the second-best launch of the rebooted series at the US box office, and has continued to perform strongly as other would-be blockbusters have faltered.
After three weeks of release, the new Planet of the Apes movie has crossed the $300 million mark worldwide. It doesn't have any major markets left to open in, so will have to rely on holdovers to boost its global tally.
It's currently the lowest-grossing of the four rebooted movies, behind Rise of the Planet of the Apes ($471 million) and War for the Planet of the Apes ($489.6 million).
Kingdom will hope to have enough box-office legs left to challenge both of those and could well do so. However, the series high-point, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' $710.6 million, is well out of reach.
The Fall Guy box office
US: $75,518,480
International: $71,450,806
Worldwide: $146,969,286
It was hoped that The Fall Guy would ignite the summer blockbuster season, but it hasn't quite panned out that way despite an on-screen Barbenheimer pairing of Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt.
At the US box office, its opening of $27.7 million was disappointing purely because it was projected to open with at least $30 million. It's now closing in on $150 million worldwide after nearly a month of release, which doesn't seem too bad in isolation for an original – albeit loosely inspired by a TV show – action-comedy.
It might even surprise you to know it's the fourth highest-grossing movie of Ryan Gosling's career behind Barbie, La La Land and Blade Runner 2049.
The problem is that The Fall Guy's reported budget is at least $130 million, not including marketing costs. Assuming the usual 2.5x rule, the movie would have to make nearly $300 million to turn a profit.
Perhaps it was a case of timing. It's usually a franchise movie, such as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 last year, chosen for this early summer slot, and The Fall Guy might have done better later in the season.
Ignore anybody saying that The Fall Guy's quick digital release is a reflection of its relative failure at the box office, though. That's just become standard procedure for every Universal movie, bar Oppenheimer, in the past year or so.
IF box office
US: $68,198,624
International: $40,000,000
Worldwide: $108,198,624
Talking of movies that haven't done quite as well as expected brings us to John Krasinski's family offering IF, starring Ryan Reynolds.
The movie was projected to open with at least $40 million at the US box office and ended up debuting with $33.7 million. It has held well worldwide though and has now cracked $100 million to stand at $108.2 million to date.
It's not unusual for a family movie to enjoy a lengthy run at the box office, but IF is having to compete with The Garfield Movie (more on that in a bit) rather than having the younger market all to itself. What's more, Garfield is a known property compared to IF's original concept.
Like The Fall Guy, IF's box office is being judged relative to its reported $110 million budget, meaning Paramount would be ideally looking for at least $275 million worldwide. That's still possible with openings to come in Japan and China, among others.
The Garfield Movie box office
US: $35,719,944
International: $66,597,805
Worldwide: $102,317,749
The Garfield Movie might have only been out a week in the US, but thanks to early international releases, it's already grossed $102.3 million worldwide.
At the US box office, it was in a closer race than expected with Furiosa and just missed out on top spot. However, it's expected to have a longer tail than the Mad Max prequel and could have a healthy couple of weeks before Inside Out 2 arrives.
It'd be a surprise if The Garfield Movie didn't end its run as the highest-grossing Garfield movie to date. That record currently belongs to 2004's Garfield: The Movie with $208.1 million worldwide.
The Garfield Movie still has releases to come in major markets such as Australia, France and Japan, so it should easily go past that total to reign supreme in terms of big-screen Garfield outings.
Biggest movies of 2024 so far
Five months into the year and Dune: Part Two continues its reign as the highest-grossing movie of the year to date.
The only May release to be able to crack the top ten is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, but The Garfield Movie will also find itself becoming one of the top 10 biggest movies of the year in the coming weeks.
Also of note is that Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has become the highest-grossing movie of the MonsterVerse to date following its release in April.
(The totals below are accurate as of May 31, 2024 and from The Numbers and Box Office Mojo.)
1. Dune: Part Two– $711,768,517
2. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire – $564,989,820
3. Kung Fu Panda 4 – $542,936,919
4. YOLO – $479,597,304
5. Pegasus 2 – $469,847,217
6. Article 20 – $339,663,274
7. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – $305,228,810
8. Boonie Bears: Time Twist – $276,135,284
9. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – $200,554,636
10. Bob Marley: One Love – $179,393,170
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