Things begin to get a little crowded at the box office this week and it's not because there's a large spate of high-profile wide releases, mind you. Where most Marvel and DC movies tend to have at least two weeks to hold court at the box office, Logan is now facing off against another beloved franchise with Kong: Skull Island, an interesting and amiable but sloppy take on the (other) king of the monsters. Last year, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ruled for two weekends; Deadpool and Suicide Squad held the throne for three. Only X-Men: Apocalypse was kicked out of the top spot in its second weekend, after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows slid into first.

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Image via 20th Century Fox

It's unclear now if this is how Logan, one of the better Fox-Marvel collaborations, will end up but as of right now, Kong is indeed king. Kong: Skull Island took in some $20.2 million on Friday after an admirable $3.7 million in late-night Thursday showings. In comparison, Logan took in $10.5 million on Friday, setting up a weekend that will end with an estimated $35 million for the latest X-Men adventure, if the prognosticators are on point. There was plenty of talk during this week and even last week that Logan could have bulldozed Kong in terms of simple name recognition - Logan has a long and quite current mythology to tap into that Kong simply does not. It's now looking like Kong will indeed beat out the Wolverine by the end of the weekend.

The question now becomes whether or not Kong: Skull Island will be able to make its money back in the long term, which has little to do with whether or not Kong wins the weekend. The movie cost upwards of $185 million to make, and that's not even getting into advertising, distribution, and the like that would likely ratchet that number up to something closer to $225 million, roughly. This puts immense pressure on international numbers for the Legendary-Warner Bros. film, as the movie will certainly drop down a few rungs next weekend with the release of Beauty and the Beast. If it can climb its way to $100 million before heading out of theaters, there's a chance but it's not going to be a walk in the park in anyone's imagination. As always, we shall see.

Here's the top five at the box office on Friday:

Title

Friday Total

To-Date Total

1. ‘Kong: Skull Island’

$20.2 Million

$23.9 Million

2. ‘Logan’

$10.3 Million

$125.1 Million

3. ‘Get Out’

$6 Million

$95.9 Million

4. ‘The Shack’

$2.6 Million

$24.8 Million

5. ‘The LEGO Batman Movie’

$1.7 Million

$152.9 Million

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Image via 20th Century Fox
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Image via Universal Pictures
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Image via Warner Bros.