'Godzilla' Completely Squashes the Box Office; Jon Hamm Flails
Welcome to the Box Office Report, where the biggest opening day of 2014 came not by spider nor American captain, but by animated reptile. And a frazzled Bryan Cranston.
1. Godzilla (Warner Brothers): $93.2 million in 3,952 theaters.
There was some divide on Godzilla among critics, but the tomatoes were mostly unrotten and our own David Sims said, You know what? Go see it. And so America did, traveling in droves to watch its own pixelated destruction. By the end of the weekend, the $100 million mark was achingly close. Nevertheless, Bryan Cranston for the olds, Aaron Johnson for the youngs, graphics for the nerds, and you've got the biggest opening day of 2014. No Puff Daddy though, which is why it ultimately fell shy of the biggest opening weekend, just two million bucks behind Captain America.
2. Neighbors (Universal): $26 million in 3,311 theaters.
After a very strong opening by Rogen and co. last weekend, moviegoers built good fences around Neighbors and the crowd lessened by nearly half. That's not a lot of staying power given that it's the only big-name comedy to be released this month and that Rose Byrne is a revelation. No worries. In its second week alone, Neighbors still outearned its own production budget.
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3. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Sony): $16.8 million in 3,991 theaters.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2, after a booming opening has gone bust in the subsequent weeks, dropping from $91 million to $37 million and finally/fitfully/fittingly into the teens. It also seems to be lagging behind the four other Spider-Men movies this century, which is disconcerting for Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone since there is yet another installment of the franchise coming out in 2016. Oh, and in 2018 as well.
4. Million Dollar Arm (Buena Vista): $10.5 million in 3,019 theaters.
Another AMC-made star had a flick open this weekend in a much smaller release. Jon Hamm's Million Dollar Arm is about cricket? Baseball? Redemption? Jon Hamm? A real-life sports agent? All of the above? No matter what, America was uninspired. "Sometimes to win, you have to change the game" is a pretty unimaginative tagline. Who's writing copy over at Disney?
5. The Other Woman (TriStar): $6.3 million in 3,054 theaters.
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The Other Woman snuck away with the Box Office title four weeks back. That seems like such a long time ago. Since then, the buzz behind this first-of-many Cameron Diaz 2014 projects has fallen off and quick. And this may be the last we'll hear of Kate Upton and Don Johnson.
This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/entertainment/2014/05/godzilla-completely-squashes-the-box-office-jon-hamm-flails/371113/
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