Surprising at least a few people who were predicting an opening in the neighborhood of $50 to $60 million, Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla stomped its way through the box office with an estimated $93.2 million in its first weekend of release. So, yay.
Neighbors dropped to second place with a still very respectable $26 million, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 took third place with $16.8 million. Million Dollar Arm opened in fourth with $11 million, but I expect word of mouth to prop that up next weekend.
Conversely, word of mouth may work against Godzilla next weekend, what with a certain segment of this weekend’s moviegoers being awfully whiny about the movie’s aesthetic of dread and suspense, rather than OMG CONSTANT MONSTER ACTION WITH GODZILLA EATING TANKS AND SHIT. Those people are idiots. Ignore them.
You’ve seen Godzilla by now, right? No? Why not? Are you trapped under something? C’mon, get on that, that’s what holiday weekends are for.