Box Office Report: Godzilla destroys his box office competition

So it turns out Australian audiences were in the mood for a bit of epic monster destruction over the weekend. In an incredible success story, Gareth Edwards’ reboot of Godzilla took the top spot over the weekend with almost $6.8 million, which also gives it the biggest opening weekend of the year so far! Pretty good for a film that has no major movie stars in its cast and is the reboot of a series that hit a major low point in 1998 with Roland Emmerich’s identically-titled film. This can all be attributed to the top-notch marketing campaign for the film. Ever since the first teaser trailer showed soldiers sky-diving into a burning San Fransisco, expectations for the film have been high. The trailers teased the titular monster without giving too much away; a technique that is re-used in the film itself. Reviews have been mostly positive, with Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston receiving most of the praise, while Edward’s decision to show so little of Godzilla has been met with mixed opinions. But one thing’s for sure; when Big G is finally on-screen, it is a sight to behold. The film is likely to do strong business for the next few weeks at least, even though it faces some stiff competition. Bad Neighbours added another impressive $3.1 million over the weekend, and positive word of mouth should keep it solid for a while. Meanwhile, The Other Woman and The Grand Budapest Hotel just won’t give up; the former has been in the top five for over three weeks, while the latter has been there for more than five!

 

# Film Title Distributor Box Office
1 GODZILLA WARNER BROS $6,767,119
2 BAD NEIGHBOURS UNIVERSAL $3,125,511
3 THE OTHER WOMAN FOX $1,000,294
4 CHEF STUDIOCANAL $608,035
5 THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL FOX $549,332
6 THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2: RISE OF ELECTRO SONY PICTURES $474,526
7 BELLE ICON $289,257
8 THE LEGO MOVIE ROADSHOW $268,601
9 DIVERGENT ENTERTAINMENT ONE $182,423
10 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER WALT DISNEY $136,773

There is only one major new release this week, but it’s a big one. X-Men: Days of Future Past has the unenviable task of merging two sides of the X-Men franchise; the Wolverine-led original trilogy and the prequel universe of 2010’s X-Men: First Class. X1 and X2 director Bryan Singer is back in the director’s chair, and early reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. The film boasts an incredible ensemble cast made up of favourites from both eras, including Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Peter Dinklage and Jennifer Lawrence. A film with that cast would do big business even if it wasn’t part of one of the most popular franchises of all time, so we can expect Days of Future Past to win the weekend in a big way.

 

All figures from The Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia and Box Office Mojo.

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