Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros.' Godzilla debuts to a monstrous $93.2 million at the domestic box office, giving the iconic giant lizard a new lease on life and delivering the second-best opening of the year after Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Gareth Edwards' Godzilla debuted to a monstrous $93.2 million from 3,952 theaters at the domestic box office, giving the iconic giant lizard a new lease on life and delivering the second-best opening of the year. Marking the summer's second tentpole, Godzilla delivered the second-best opening of the year so far after Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($95 million) and bested the $91.6 million opening of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 two weeks ago.
The monster movie did strong business in IMAX theaters, which turned in 15 percent of the overall gross with $13.5 million from 352 locations. More than half of the movie's earnings came from 3D locations.
Overseas, the $160 million movie debuted to $103 million from 64 markets for a global total of $196.2 million for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros.
The only other film opening in North America over the weekend was Disney's Million Dollar Arm, starring Jon Hamm as a sports agent who travels to India to recruit baseball pitchers. The $25 million movie opened to $10.5 million, putting it at number four for the weekend behind Godzilla, Neighbors and Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Universal’s Neighbors held well in its second weekend, falling only 47 percent to $26 million for a North American total of $91.5 million. Internationally, the R-rated comedy has earned a promising $54.8 million to date from 35 markets for a world total of $146.3 million.
Sony's Amazing Spider-Man 2 fell roughly 54 percent in its third weekend, earning $16.8 million for a domestic total of $172.1 million. Overseas, the movie grossed another $31.5 million for a foreign total of $461 million and global haul of $633.1 million. The sequel continues to soar in China, where it has grossed $78.5 million to date.
Fox comedy The Other Woman rounded out the top five, grossing $6.5 million for a domestic total of $71.9 million.
Sony/TriStar faith-based film Heaven Is for Real placed sixth in its fifth weekend out with $4.4 million, pushing its domestic total to $82.2 million.
Fox and Blue Sky's Rio 2 made $3.8 million over its sixth weekend at the box office for a new domestic total of $118.1 million and a seventh place finish.
Now in its seventh week at the box office, Disney and Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier came in eighth place, taking in $3.75 million for a domestic total of $250.6 million. The Marvel feature reached $700 million worldwide this weekend, and is currently the highest-grossing 2014 release.
Summertime Entertainment’s Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return placed number nine with $1.95 million, pushing the animated feature’s domestic total to $6.6 million. The film cost $70 million to produce.
Rounding out the list at number 10, faith-based female comedy Moms' Night Out brought in $1.9 million over its second weekend out for a new domestic total of $7.3 million for Sony/TriStar.
Disney’s Frozen held on to first place in Japan for the 10th weekend in a row. It now ranks sixth all-time there with $179.6 million. On a worldwide basis, it passed $1.2 billion, and it should move up to fifth place ahead of Iron Man 3 ($1.215 billion) next weekend.
Box office numbers were obtained on boxofficemojo.com.
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
