The reviews for Godzilla: King Of The Monsters have been mixed and it may not quite have met original projections, but the giant creature was still able to stomp all over the competition at the Stateside box office this weekend. The latest 'zilla encounter nabbed $49 million, according to studio estimates.
That was enough to end Aladdin's one-week reign at the top of the charts, though it's a dip from the previous creature feature entries. Worldwide, King Of The Monsters took in $179 million, a decent start for the beast, which admittedly has to make back a monstrous $170 million budget and a no-doubt huge advertising cost before it sees profit. Yet it should be enough for Warners not to worry as it ploughs ahead with the "monsterverse" that has scheduled Godzilla Vs. Kong for next year.
Aladdin fell 53% but still earned $42.3 million as people continued to turn out to see it. Its US total is now past $183 million, with more than $445 million in its treasure cave worldwide.
Of the other new arrivals, Rocketman was the best performer, taking in $25 million in third and more than $56 million worldwide. The comparisons to Bohemian Rhapsody are, of course, inevitable, and the newcomer did a little less than half of the Queen film's opening weekend. It remains to be seen if Rocketman can display the same sort of long-running appeal, as Rhapsody passed $900 million worldwide.
Thriller Ma had less riding on it, as it was produced for the Blumhouse team at the thrifty price of $5 million (before ads etc). It earned $18.2 million and launched in fourth place. Rounding out the top five was John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum with $11.1 million.
Avengers: Endgame finally began to fall down the charts, adding $7.8 million and landing sixth after six weeks on release. Its worldwide gross edged past $2.71 billion, which means it still lags behind Avatar's $2.78 billion total.
Detective Pikachu slipped to seventh and $6.6 million, while Booksmart dropped a couple of places to eighth with $3.3 million. It actually traded places with horror pic Brightburn. which fell to ninth and $2.3 million. The Hustle slipped two places to 10th, adding $1.3 million.
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