‘Godzilla’ squashes B.O. competition

Monster-movie remake Godzilla enjoyed the second-best opening of 2014 this past weekend. The flick, starring Bryan Cranston and Elizabeth Olsen, opened to a boffo $93 million. That’s just a few million dollars short of Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s $95 million debut (and just ahead of The Amazing Spider Man 2’s more recent $91.6 million bow). A large portion of the audience opted to view the rampaging lizard in 3D, which accounted for 51 percent of the film’s total earnings, $14.1 million of which came from IMAX specifically. It was a predominantly male (58 percent) and older (60 percent over the age of 25) crowd that awarded Godzilla an OK CinemaScore grade of a B+. In other words, viewers liked but didn’t love the creature feature, which faces stiff competition this weekend when the blockbuster X Men: Days of Futures Past opens to, most likely, a box-office monopoly.

In second place, comedy Neighbors raked in $26 million, a downturn of 47 percent. After two weeks in theatres, the film’s total earnings stand at $91.5 million. Neighbors should end its theatrical run with $150 million or so.

The mixed-reviewed The Amazing Spider-Man 2 clocked in at No. 3 with a $16.8 million haul. The film suffered a dropoff of 63 percent this weekend, though its total to date is a nonetheless solid $172 million. Once again, with X Men: Days of Future Past looming on, to the extent of practically overtaking, the horizon, Spidey is in for an even poorer showing this coming weekend.

Though a majority of critics seemed to enjoy Million Dollar Arm (60 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), audiences showed little enthusiasm for the based-on-a-true-story baseball feature. Arm disappointed with a fourth-place, $10.5 million opening, which translates to roughly half of Moneyball’s debut ($19.5 million), even if it is a bit higher than Draft Day’s $9.8 million bow. Pundits predict total returns should end up tallying out to $30 million.

Finally, femme comedy The Other Woman rounded out the weekend’s top five. The Cameron Diaz film added an additional $6.3 million to a total that now stands at over $70 million and counting.