Los Angeles | Movie-goers sent a message to Hollywood over the weekend: We’re ready to return to theatres – and we’ll buy tickets even if the same film is instantly available in our living rooms – but we want to leave our grim world for a silly fantasy one.

Godzilla vs Kong, a throwback monster movie in which a lizard with atomic breath battles a computer-generated ape on top of an aircraft carrier (before everyone decamps to the hollow centre of Earth), took in an estimated $US48.5 million ($63.5 million) at 3064 North American cinemas between Wednesday and Sunday. It was the largest turnout (by far) for a movie since the pandemic began.