FRIDAY BOX-OFFICE: Godzilla is King

[MovieBob]

FRIDAY BOX-OFFICE: Godzilla is King

The King of The Monsters could be a $100 million hit

The first new Godzilla feature in a decade stomped all over U.S. theaters Friday, earning almost $39 million in ticket sales. Analysts are now predicting that director Gareth Edwards' ambitious update of the 60+ year-old Japanese monster franchise will earn upwards of $98 million for its opening weekend - with a distinct possibility of hitting the $100 million+ "magic number."

Also continuing to fare well is the R-rated family versus fraternity comedy Neighbors, which shocked Hollywood last week when it swatted a weaker-than-expected Amazing Spider-Man 2 from the top spot. The raunchy surprise-hit is benefitting from excellent word of mouth, and dropped only 46% to second place; though the real test will be in how it fares with another big comedy, Adam Sandler's Blended, entering theaters next week.

Speaking of Spider-Man, Sony's reboot sequel has continued to fall sharper than expected, down to third place with only a $16 million weekend now projected. With it's final U.S. earnings not expected to cross $220 million, the studio will now have to hope that international sales can push it into profitability.

The only other major new wide-release, Disney's feel-good baseball movie Million Dollar Arm, landed soft with only $10 million projected for the weekend.


Source: Deadline [http://www.deadline.com/2014/05/box-office-godzilla-crushes-it-90m/]

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[viranimus]

So the moral is...

Anything can be on top if the competition is adequately weak enough.

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

The only other major new wide-release, Disney's feel-good baseball movie Million Dollar Arm, landed soft with only $10 million projected for the weekend.

If they only had five actors, that title would be more literal than anything...

 

[Sanunes]

So the moral is...

Anything can be on top if the competition is adequately weak enough.

or the movie is misrepresented from what it actually is in all the promotional material.

 

[ryukage_sama]

Well, I'm not impressed by the writing in Godzilla, but I hope the profits are enough to justify new giant monster productions. As much money as Pacific Rim made overall and internationally, it was considered only a tepid success in the US. If Godzilla can make its money stateside, American production companies are more likely to finance more movies featuring city-wrecking, army stomping monsters. That would be good news, even if they're only batting 0.500 in terms of quality.

 

[lacktheknack]

Well blow me down and pick me up, looks like this IS going to be a weekly thing after all.

My heartiest apologies, Bob.

Also, I'm surprised that Neighbours did so well. Everyone I talked to thought it looked like trash.

 

[FPLOON]

Despite all of the problems I had with this latest 'Godzilla,' I do want it to be successful. That finale was awe-inspiring, and if there's even the smallest glimmer that we can see more of that, I'm all for it.

This.

I want to see what the future movie(s) would do with, like, Monster Island and stuff like that... Plus, we'll more than likely to get more Ken screentime!

 

[Brian Tams]

I really wanted Godzilla to succeed financially, and it looks I'll get my wish.

Now maybe the 1-2 punch of Pacific Rim & Godzilla will revive the massive Kaiju genre.

 

[Reaper195]

Well blow me down and pick me up, looks like this IS going to be a weekly thing after all.

My heartiest apologies, Bob.

Also, I'm surprised that Neighbours did so well. Everyone I talked to thought it looked like trash.

They can think it looked like trash all thy want. Since the trails do make it look pretty average. But it was surprisingly good. Kind of like how the Godilla trailers make it look super dark-grim and good....when it turned out to be disgustingly average. And have less focus on Godzilla than any Godzilla film ever. Hell, even the 98 version had more time to devote to Godzilla.

 

[PunkRex]

I have tests all week but i'm defiantly going to see it once they're done, maybe Neighbors too.

Despite all of the problems I had with this latest 'Godzilla,' I do want it to be successful. That finale was awe-inspiring, and if there's even the smallest glimmer that we can see more of that, I'm all for it.

This.

I want to see what the future movie(s) would do with, like, Monster Island and stuff like that... Plus, we'll more than likely to get more Ken screentime!

Any Watanabe is good Watanabe.

 

[LobsterFeng]

Well blow me down and pick me up, looks like this IS going to be a weekly thing after all.

My heartiest apologies, Bob.

Also, I'm surprised that Neighbours did so well. Everyone I talked to thought it looked like trash.

I've heard nothing but good reports about Godzilla except from Bob so I think there's going to be a new movie that Bob is going to be justifying his opinion on every other episode.

Any idea how successful the new X men movie is going to be?

 

[faefrost]

I really wanted Godzilla to succeed financially, and it looks I'll get my wish.

Now maybe the 1-2 punch of Pacific Rim & Godzilla will revive the massive Kaiju genre.

or Pacific Rim VS. Godzilla! (Hey! I can dream can't I?)

 

[Silverspetz]

I really wanted Godzilla to succeed financially, and it looks I'll get my wish.

Now maybe the 1-2 punch of Pacific Rim & Godzilla will revive the massive Kaiju genre.

or Pacific Rim VS. Godzilla! (Hey! I can dream can't I?)

I actually Heard a rumor that Del Toro was interested in making that happen if Godzilla was successful. I kind of doubt it is true though.

 

[PuckFuppet]

I actually had no strong feelings either way about Godzilla, except that it took me the better part of twenty minutes to place where I had seen the male lead before.

I actually Heard a rumor that Del Toro was interested in making that happen if Godzilla was successful. I kind of doubt it is true though.

The continuity gymnastics required to _make_ it work, to force both concepts as they exist currently into the same film, would essentially kill everything that made each film worth seeing.

On the flip side if they just... make a film with Godzilla and a few familiar elements of Pacific Rim and don't bother to really spend too much time forcing both ideas into one... it could work.

 

[Tumedus]

Well blow me down and pick me up, looks like this IS going to be a weekly thing after all.

My heartiest apologies, Bob.

Also, I'm surprised that Neighbours did so well. Everyone I talked to thought it looked like trash.

I've heard nothing but good reports about Godzilla except from Bob so I think there's going to be a new movie that Bob is going to be justifying his opinion on every other episode.

Any idea how successful the new X men movie is going to be?

Actually, if you look at the RT or metacritic, Bob's opinion is pretty standard. I am surprised that this managed to open so large given the mediocre reviews, honestly, but I guess people were just really hyped for this and wanted something that wasn't a comic book movie.

As for X-men, predictions are that it is going to be really big. 125 million is what I have seen thrown around (with the benefit of a long weekend). That said, most predictions for Godzilla were rather soft, so who knows what will actually happen.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

I'm not surprised, I just saw it last night for free as a perk of my job (though I would pay if otherwise) and goddamn that final fight did enough for me alone that I have more or less a high level of faith in Gareth to make a couple good sequels with more monsters for Godzilla to give the smackdown to.

Spoiler

with a healthy dose of atomic fire breath, of course

I do understand and somewhat sympathize with the criticism of some of it's human centric portions, however. And Bryan Cranston is somewhat underutilized, but there was enough acting chops and consistency for me to see a coherent plot aside from Godzilla vs the MUTO's. I really liked the new Godzilla too, way more built to handle his own in a brutal giant monster fight compared to super raptor that was 1998's design.

 

[Pigeon_Grenade]

i saw it Last Night as a late Birthday gift, and i enjoyed the hell outta it

 

[Silverspetz]

I actually had no strong feelings either way about Godzilla, except that it took me the better part of twenty minutes to place where I had seen the male lead before.

I actually Heard a rumor that Del Toro was interested in making that happen if Godzilla was successful. I kind of doubt it is true though.

The continuity gymnastics required to _make_ it work, to force both concepts as they exist currently into the same film, would essentially kill everything that made each film worth seeing.

On the flip side if they just... make a film with Godzilla and a few familiar elements of Pacific Rim and don't bother to really spend too much time forcing both ideas into one... it could work.

I don't know, it doesn't seem THAT hard to make it happen conceptually speaking. Pacific Rim already has travel between different realities built into its narrative.

 

[Stabby Joe]

I'm glad it's doing well in America, Pacific Rim was lacking despite being an international hit. There is still this arrogance that if it fails domestically, it failed. Thankful that tide is turning more quickly than ever.

More monster movies!