Weekend Estimates: Godzilla Joins $90 Million Club

May 18, 2014

Godzilla poster

After a huge start on Friday, estimated at $38.5 million, Godzilla looked as though it might be the first film of 2014 to have a $100 million opening weekend. But the monster movie seems to have run out of energy a little through the weekend, and Warner Bros. is projecting a weekend around $93.2 million, based on figures through Sunday morning. The film’s performance is well ahead of earlier tracking, which pegged its opening around $60 million–$80 million, and impressive for a non-sequel (although clearly Godzilla is a well-established franchise at this point). In fact, it is one of the top 10 non-sequel openers ever (see full list here).

Godzilla will be the third film this year to open in the $90 million range, following Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. With no obvious giants coming out this Summer, it looks as though we might have to wait until Interstellar (trailer) comes out in November for the next film to top $100 million on opening weekend. Four or five films have a shot at reaching the figure between now and then, so it’ll be an interesting Summer.

With Godzilla on the rampage, most other films are taking a battering at the box office. Neighbors will be down 47% in its second weekend to about $26 million, which gives it an impressive $91.5 million after two weekends. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is probably the film hit hardest by Godzilla’s charge, and will be down 53% to $16.8 million and a total a little over $170 million.

The weekend’s other wide release, Million Dollar Arm is looking like a dud, in spite of some quite good reviews. It is pegged at around $10.5 million, for a theater average of around $3,500. With limited international prospects, the film is looking like a failure for Disney.

In limited release, Chef continues to impress, with $734,000 projected from 72 theaters this weekend, which will keep its average above $10,000 as it heads towards wider release. The other films in the $10,000 club to report so far are Godzilla (with a chart-topping $23,500 average) and The Immigrant, which will debut with about $45,000 from three theaters.

- Weekend Estimates

Bruce Nash

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Chef, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Godzilla, Neighbors, Million Dollar Arm, The Immigrant