Weekend Wrap-Up: Godzilla Tops Weekend Chart and Helps 2019 to Rare Win
June 4, 2019
Godzilla: King of the Monsters didn’t live up to expectations, but it did well enough to earn first place on the weekend box office chart. King of the Monsters opened with $47.78 million, while Aladdin was right behind with $42.84 million. This helped the overall box office hold on a lot better than expected, down just 4.3% to $174 million, which is a fantastic hold for a post-holiday weekend. The box office was also a huge improvement from this weekend last year, up 63% in the year-over-year comparison. Year-to-date, 2019 has pulled in $4.54 billion, which is still 7.4% or $380 million behind last year’s pace, but a few more wins like this and that gap won’t seem so bad anymore. That said, as anyone who’s read our monthly preview will know, I’m not expecting too many weekends like this in June.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters opened in first place with $47.78 million, putting it behind both previous installments in the MonsterVerse, despite having the highest budget. The film also has the weakest reviews in the franchise, while was the third straight film to earn a B plus from CinemaScore. Perhaps the films are too narrowly focused on Kaiju fans and there are not enough of them to justify a $200 million movie, never mind a franchise of these films. If true, then there’s nothing Warner Bros. can do to turn things around, which, as a Kaiju fan myself, would be a real disappointment, because I want more of these movies made.
Aladdin held on better than predicted with a sophomore stint of $42.84 million for a two-week total of $185.54 million. At this pace, the film will have no trouble reaching $250 million domestically and it should get closer to $300 million in the end. Granted, it was an expensive movie to make, but this will still be enough to guarantee a nice profit by the film’s initial push into the home market.
Rocketman missed expectations with just $25.73 million during its opening weekend. This is well below most predictions and well below its reviews and its A minus from CinemaScore. I guess the target audience was scared away by the R-rating. That’s my only explanation. Hopefully the film will still have long legs and it will be a financial success, but it will be seen as a disappointment to many.
MA opened in fourth place with $18.10 million, which is an amazing start for a film that cost just $5 million to make. With its overall positive reviews and its B minus from CinemaScore, it should have better than average legs for a horror film. This means it could top its combined production and advertising budgets by this time next week.
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum rounded out the top five with $11.09 million over the weekend for a three-week total of $125.74 million. It is still on pace for $150 million domestically, but it will be very close. It might need a small push from Lionsgate to get it over the top.
Avengers: Endgame slipped to sixth place with $8.04 million over the weekend for a six-week total of $815.73 million. It is now just $62.92 million behind Avatar for first place on the all-time worldwide chart, but it will need long trailing legs to overtake that film for first place. We will keep tracking its progress for as long as it has a reasonable chance of getting there.
Booksmart was the best of the rest of the sophomore class earning sixth place with $3.30 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $14.34 million. It had the best legs of the three sophomore films, but I fear this is too little, too late. Brightburn plummeted 69% to just $2.46 million over the weekend for a total of $14.35 million after two. Its theater average is below $1,000, so it could lose a majority of its theater count on Friday.
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Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Avengers: Endgame, Aladdin, John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum, Rocketman, Booksmart, BrightBurn, MA, MonsterVerse