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Hollywood Reporter: Adam Wingard Will Not Return for Next Godzilla x Kong Film

The Hollywood Reporter reported on Tuesday that director Adam Wingard will not return for the third film installment of Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment's Godzilla x Kong film series due to "timing issues." The report describes Wingard's departure as amicable, with the companies leaving the door open for a future return.

Wingard is reportedly planning to direct an original movie titled Onslaught this fall, before taking on any other projects.

The Hollywood Reporter previously reported that screenwriter David Callaham (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse films) will write the script for the series' third film.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the latest film in Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment's "Monsterverse" series, opened in the United States on March 29, two weeks earlier than its previously planned April 12 date. (The April 12 release was itself a delay from its original March 15 opening.)

The film earned about US$8 million during its preview screenings on March 28 in roughly 3,400 locations in the U.S. The earnings mark the second-best previews for a "Monsterverse" movie, as 2014's Godzilla earned US$9.3 million in preview screenings.

The film earned US$80 million in its opening weekend in the U.S., topping the box office for the weekend. The film has earned a total of US$194,516,234 in the U.S., and US$563,816,234 worldwide as of this week.

The film opened in Japan on April 26, and debuted at #2 in the box office. The film sold 306,000 tickets and earned 466,704,060 yen (about US$3.05 million) in its first three days, and had sold 417,000 tickets and earned a cumulative total of 622 million yen (about US$4.06 million) in its first four days (the film opened on a long weekend). The film has earned a cumulative total of 1,557,093,250 yen (about US$9.95 million) as of May 19.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter (Borys Kit)