Godzilla may have been king of the box office this weekend, but it’s fair to say that his reign wasn’t all that impressive.
A sequel to the 2014 film, Godzilla: King of the Monsters debut on top this weekend, but it did it with just $49.5 million. That’s not the sort of number you want to see for a franchise film, especially one that’s first film arrived with $91 million. Even Kong: Skull Island, set in the same world, performed much stronger with a $61 debut in 2017. What happened? Middling reviews didn’t help, for sure. Neither did having Millie Bobby Brown as the focal point of the humans, apparently, with nobody to play off.
I saw Godzilla: King of the Monsters on Friday night and, while the monster battles were great, as you’d expect, I thought the film surrounding it was really not very good. I found none of the human characters remotely engaging and for me, big bads going at it aren’t enough to make a good movie. That being said, it sounds like die-hard Godzilla fans have enjoyed the film; there just may not be enough of them out there these days to make the franchise viable.
As for the rest of the top five, Disneys’s Aladdin had a pretty big 61% drop week to week to land in second place with $44.5 million. Rocketman had a strong third place debut with $22.9 million, while Ma debut in fourth place with $18 million. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum closed things out in fifth place with $10.5 million.
So, to recap, here were our predictions:
1) Godzilla: King of the Monsters – $55 million
2) Disney’s Aladdin – $42 million
3) Rocketman – $29 million
4) Ma – $18 million
5) John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum – $14 million
And here’s how the weekend is estimated to turn out:
1) Godzilla: King of the Monsters – $49.5 million
2) Disney’s Aladdin – $44.5 million
3) Rocketman – $22.9 million
4) Ma – $18 million
5) John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum – $10.5 million
Next week sees the release of X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Be sure to check back on Friday to see our predictions!
