For a while now, everyone has been waiting on the series of movies that will grace the cinema in 2019. Especially for us here in Nigeria we might have to wait a little bit more for anything coming from Hollywood since they first hit the US box office. This article is a US box office review from last weekend.
The most recent of them all is Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Just released over the weekend, the movie cupped about $49 million according to estimates. This was more than enough to dethrone Aladdin from its one-week reign in the top of the box office chart.
Obviously, what is happening is that Warner is trying to create a new “monsterverse” franchise. This may cost a lot to pull off but so far it looks as though the odds are in their favor. Sitting quite coolly on a budget of $170 million, King of the Monsters has already made $179 million worldwide in a decent opening. Warner is already planning something that looks like a sequel for next year called Godzilla Vs Kong. Now I know I am quite excited about that, I don’t know about you though.
Of the other new arrivals, Rocketman performed best, taking in 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.
Aladdin fell 53% but still earned $42.3 million as people continued to turn out to see it. Thriller Ma, on the other hand, 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.
Thus far, the reviews for Godzilla have been pouring in and as usual people have a lot to say. Reviews have been relatively mixed and may have missed original projections, but the beast stays atop for now in the box office. My advise though, is to watch this movie with an open mind and enjoy the exhilarating action.