This morning, I attended a screening of Wes Ball’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.”
The review embargo breaks tomorrow, that’s also when my thoughts on the film will pop up online. Variety is reporting that ‘Kingdom’ is looking at a 50+ million opening weekend. It cost around $160 million to produce.
For comparison’s sake, 2011’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” opened to $54.8M, 2014’s “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” had a franchise-best $72.6M, while 2017’s “War for the Planet of the Apes” settled with a $56.2M domestic opening.
Meanwhile, ‘Kingdom’ is a rather lengthy affair. The runtime is 148 minutes, which would make it the longest movie in ‘Apes’ franchise history.
Matt Reeves did an admirable job directing ‘War’ and his absence here can be felt. Ball, whose claim to fame is the tepid ‘Maze Runner’ trilogy. Given Ball’s track record.
‘Kingdom’ takes place a few generations after the events of “War for the Planet of the Apes”, with many ape clans having emerged in the oasis to which Caesar led his fellow apes, while humans have regressed into a “feral state”. The apes take the teachings of Caesar to enslave other clans in search of the last traces of a secret human technology. There’s also a subplot about another ape embarking on a journey to find freedom alongside a human girl.
You can view the trailer for yourself. The cast this time around includes William H. Macy (amusing), Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Peter Macon, Eka Darville, Dichen Lachman and Kevin Durand