After last summer’s decidedly mixed domestic performance for Guillermo del Toro’s kaiju big battle movie Pacific Rim, it was understandable that box office prognosticators were a little skeptical that Gareth Edwards’ American Godzilla reboot would connect. But connect it did, with a weekend total of $93.2 million, far above the $70 million that Warner Bros. was expecting. Part of that was its $38.5 million opening Friday, the biggest opening day of the year for any movie, ahead of both of this year’s superhero offerings. Godzilla‘s also racked up $103 million overseas and will likely be a strong performer abroad, just as Pacific Rim outpaced its U.S. gross internationally by a substantial margin.
As is tradition, the only other movie opening was a counterprogramming choice, in this case the Jon Hamm-starring Disney sports movie Million Dollar Arm. Without a franchise to its name, and with decidedly mixed reviews from both critics and audiences, the movie came in fourth place with $10.5 million against a $25 million budget. Baseball was no match for the monsters this week.
As kids are now starting to get out of school and see more movies, all of the older releases did decent business. Neighbors moved down a slot and made $25.9 million in its second weekend, bringing its total to $91 million, likely making it one of the biggest successes of the summer when compared to its budget ($18 million). The Amazing Spider-Man 2 moved down to number 3 and took $16.8 million for a $172 million total, putting it $90 million away from what its predecessor made two years ago. And Jon Favreau’s Chef expanded to 72 theaters and made $734,000, about $10k per theater and a solid showing for the indie in its second weekend.
Next week brings the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore pairing Blended, and the latest in the X-Men franchise. No points for guessing which one winds up on top.
Source: BoxOfficeMojo
