'Godzilla' Smashes Box Office With $93.2 Million For 2014's Second-Largest Opening Weekend

Godzilla isn’t just King of the Monsters – he’s king of the box office as well.

The latest reboot of the legendary Japanese kaiju took in a massive $93.2 million in its opening weekend, knocking last week’s box-office champion, “Neighbors,” to a distant second place. That performance makes “Godzilla” the second-largest debut of the year, right behind the $95 million opening haul of April’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” and ahead of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” which did $91.6 million in its opening weekend. Using those films as a benchmark, we can expect “Godzilla” to take in between $200 million and $250 million throughout its theatrical run.

With an additional $103 million coming in from foreign markets, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ “Godzilla,” starring Bryan Cranston, has already made back its $160 million budget and stands to make even more in the coming weeks. The biggest foreign markets for “Godzilla” were the United Kingdom and Russia with $10.4 million and $9.1 million, respectively, and it gave Australia its highest opening of the year with $6.1 million. “Godzilla” has yet to open in China and Japan, and the two Asian markets should give foreign totals a shot in the arm when “Godzilla” premieres this June in China and a month later in Japan.

This time last year, “Star Trek Into Darkness” premiered with $83.7 million, which indicates that Godzilla can hold its own against more established American franchises. As Box Office Mojo noted,“Star Trek” opened on a Thursday with a limited Wednesday run, meaning “Godzilla” took home more than “Star Trek” in a shorter amount of time (though “Godzilla” got a boost from a limited Thursday night opening). “Godzilla” also vastly overshadowed last year’s big monster movie, “Pacific Rim.” The Guillermo del Toro-directed robot-vs-monster flick only took in $101 million throughout its entire domestic run, numbers that “Godzilla” will most certainly beat before the end of the week.

Most of the huge opening weekend haul for “Godzilla” came from premium screenings. Box Office Mojo reports that 51 percent of its revenue came from 3D screenings, $14.1 million of which specifically came from IMAX 3D. That gives “Godzilla” the highest revenue from IMAX 3D screenings this year. Just over half of foreign grosses also came from 3D and IMAX 3D screenings. Just like its star, “Godzilla” is an unstoppable force of nature.