'Godzilla 2014' King of the Box Office

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‘Godzilla’ Crushes Box Office With Largest Opening Day of Year,

 Set for $98 Million Weekend


UPDATE: fav.me/d7iwrq6


 
Variety
 By Maane Khatchatourian May 17, 2014
 

The King of the Monsters is also king of the box office.

Godzilla” obliterated the competition with a $38.5 million Stateside opening on Friday, the largest debut day of the year. This includes $9.3 million from Thursday night screenings. At $6.2 million, the creature feature also earned 2014′s biggest Imax opening.

The Warner Bros.-Legendary Pictures reboot of the Japanese classic is on track for a much-higher-than-anticipated $98 million this weekend, which would be the best opening of the year so far.

This also means the tentpole could top the openings of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” which launched to $95 million and $91.6 million, respectively.

If that figure holds, it will also mark the highest grossing debut for a monster movie to date, ahead of the last record holder, “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” which opened to $72 million in 1997.

Gareth Edwards’ “Godzilla” is undoing the damage done by Sony’s 1998 big-budget disaster. Roland Emmerich’s pic starring Matthew Broderick opened to lackluster reviews and grossed only $6 million more Stateside than its $130 million production budget (it hauled $380 million worldwide). In fact, the last three Godzilla movies have flopped domestically, with “Godzilla 1985” grossing $4 million and “Godzilla 2000” making $10 million.

“Godzilla” had also grossed $20 million from more than 30 markets on Thursday, including $2 million in the U.K. from sneak screenings, $1.7 million in Russia and $1.4 million in Mexico. It opened in 64 international territories on Friday.

The $160 million blockbuster is the last film that WB is co-financing with Legendary — its producing partner of eight years. “Godzilla” is their first big-budget collaboration following last summer’s mixed bag “Pacific Rim.”

Legendary, which financed 75% of “Godzilla,” looks to be turning a new leaf following its recent trouble with the monster genre at the U.S. box office. “Pacific Rim’s” meager takings (it made $102 million domestic on a $190 million production budget) followed Bryan Singer’s “Jack the Giant Slayer” disappointment, another WB release.

The pic starring Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen is playing in 3,952 theaters. It received mainly positive reviews, earning a B+ CinemaScorea and 73% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

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Liz-DarkWarrior's avatar
I loved this movie! I thought it did a great job of paying homage to the original Godzilla movies, especially in the fight scenes :D