RankTitleDomestic Gross (Weekend)Worldwide Gross (Cume)Week #Percentage ChangeBudget1Godzilla: King of the Monsters$49,025,000$179,025,0001N/A$170M2Aladdin (2019)$42,335,000$445,932,1742-53.7%$183M3Rocketman$25,000,000$56,200,0001N/A$40M4Ma$18,260,000$21,060,0001N/A$5M5John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum$11,100,000$221,652,8123-54.9%$55MNotable Box Office StoriesGodzilla: King of the Monsters - Poor pun based box office writers. You know they've had their "Godzilla is King of the box office" headlines ready for weeks but I'm not so sure that Godzilla: King of the Monsters opening at #1 with $49M is really worthy of royalty status. The sequel to the 2014 reboot of the American Godzilla franchise and third film in the 'Monsterverse' was not exactly a major franchise crowning itself god of all as the film opened $40M less than Godzilla '14 which opened to $92M. Overseas the numbers are a little healthier, topping off the worldwide gross with $179M, but the thing is kaiju movies have never been global blockbuster events. If we are counting King Kong (which is part of the Monsterverse, so I think so) then Kong: Skull Island is the biggest one ever at $566.6M, with almost $400M of that from overseas. And Godzilla '14 made just $325M overseas so Godzilla: KOTM needs to do way better domestically or else it will be a major blow to the franchise, especially with another film coming in less than a year (Godzilla vs King Kong). So why did this film do so much less than the previous film featuring the chonky scalie boy?Godzilla: King of the Monsters (cont.) - Well for outside factor we must note this weekend was the same as the NBA Finals on Sunday. I went to see Rocketman at the same time (are you shocked I'm not a sports guy?) and the theater was a ghost town. But that doesn't explain the low opening of $19.6M on the first day. The reviews certainly didn't help, with critics slamming the film for its over-reliance on monster fights over terrible human characters. And while kaiju fans are used to terrible characters that you tolerate to get to the big monster fights, maybe that's a tradition that doesn't have to exist, especially when trying to appeal to a wider audience. Also even kaiju fans seems mixed on the film, more positive than Godzilla '14 but still some strong negative vibes. I think WOM on this one could be terrible, and I wouldn't be shocked at a strong drop-off next weekend. There's also just the subject matter itself. The 2014 film was based on the most recognizable Godzilla film, the 1958 original Gojira. But the closest analog to Godzilla: KOTM is 1964's Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster which is about a princess being taken over by an alien ghost and who warns of a space dragon that will destroy the world (for real). Basically what I'm saying is, this one is for kaiju nerds, not the regular audience. And the audience likely got their fill of the big boy in 2014 which was criticized for not enough Godzilla action and people don't want to get duped again. Whatever the cause Godzilla vs King Kong will need a major glow-up for this franchise to continue, lest Toho once again takes the rights and scampers off into the night.Godzilla: King of the Monsters (cont.) - Also make a $150M solo Mothra movie, you absolute fucking cowards.Rocketman - Despite me buying 12 tickets to just see the Taron Egerton/Richard Madden sex scene over and over the biopic about Elton John's life Rocketman did not hit #1 but did manage to score a very good debut at #3 with $25M. So of course the comparison here is to Bohemian Rhapsody, the other film about a massive 70s queer musician which definitely has and will trounce Rocketman in all box office comparisons, opening twice what Rocketman just did and going on to gross an insane $900M worldwide. But I don't think that was ever in the cards for Rocketman, which let's be frank took a lot more risks than BR. For one the film is R-rated, becoming the first American studio film to show a male on male love scene (before your comments, Brokeback Mountain was made and distributed by an independent studio). It already has faced major edits from homophobic countries like Russia and will struggle for that reason. Also the film is not your standard biopic, as it is a straight up jukebox musical retelling of Elton John's life, with various people singing his songs and large dance sequences. And while Elton John was the biggest selling artist of his day, I'm not sure younger people adore him so much they will rush out to see his biopic ASAP.Rocketman (cont.) - So the lower opening is expected and it is the 4th biggest musical biopic opening, so it's done well in terms of overall comparisons. The real test will be how the film holds and that's harder to know. It scored a very good A- on Cinemascore, by so did All Eyez on Me, the Tupac biopic that opened the same as Rocketman but dropped like a rock when fan backlash killed its momentum. So far it seems Elton fans are very happy with the film and with it being an older generation play (55% of the opening weekend audience was over 30) you tend to see long consistent holds versus massive openings. But the pure musical style could turn off some people who don't want something so different, and may just want to see the standard Walk Hard but serious movie they've done 100,000 times now. Look you may find that style tiring but just last year it made $900M and won 4 Oscars so don't expect it to go away any time soon. Speaking of it definitely feels like Rocketman has set itself up as an early Oscar frontrunner, with Taron Egerton and the costume design feeling like locks already, though of course much of that will change in the coming months and will depend heavily on the film's performance and how many people like me ship Madderton.Ma - MA! Get in here, Ma just opened up at #4 with $18.2M, Ma! MAAAAA! Okay I'm done, but for real the horror film that dared to ask what if Octavia Spencer was spooky had a pretty good opening this week, especially in comparison to its $5M budget. The film focused a lot of its branding on the fact that beloved character actress Octavia Spencer was playing bad and not playing nice to some white person in trouble (ooooh the comments, they're coming in hot). The film scored decent-ish reviews, mostly for Spencer's performance but seemed less enthused by audiences with a B- on Cinemascore. I expect a fairly hefty drop next weekend but that's the thing with horror, you cost $5M to make and it doesn't really matter how bad your next weekend is cause you already got that money baby. Hopefully this will inspire a new wave of actors who usually play nice people turning evil. Tom Hanks serial killer movie when?Films Reddit Wants to FollowThis is a segment where we keep a weekly tally of currently showing films that aren't in the Top 5 that fellow redditors want updates on. If you'd like me to add a film to this chart, make a comment in this thread.TitleDomestic Gross (Weekly)Domestic Gross (Cume)Worldwide Gross (Cume)BudgetWeek #Captain Marvel$589,081$426,181,433$1,127,488,788$152M13Us$143,135$174,891,780$254,439,692$20M11Avengers: Endgame$26,357,048$815,501,784$2,713,201,784$356M6Notable Film ClosingsTitleDomestic Gross (Cume)Worldwide Gross (Cume)BudgetPet Sematary (2019)$54,724,696$112,236,672$21MAfter$12,137,018$67,235,834$14MAs always r/boxoffice is a great place to share links and other conversations about box office news.Also you can see the archive of all Box Office Week posts at r/moviesboxoffice (which have recently been updated).My Letterboxd: http://bit.ly/2rSmMyn via /r/movies http://bit.ly/2EMZ6Co
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