Godzilla Stomps His Way To $93.2 Million Opening Weekend

(Editor’s note: Yes, we know Godzilla didn’t originate in comics, but he’s been in tons of comics, so he’s welcome on Bam Smack Pow any time he wants!)

It’s good to be king, but even better to be King of the Monsters.

Godzilla has earned that crown, smashing his way to an estimated opening weekend take of $93.2 million in the U.S. Combined with the $103 million it opened to overseas, it’s looking like Gareth Edwards and Legendary Pictures did right by the world’s most famous giant monster.

Though his reign atop the box office charts will probably be short thanks to X-Men: Days of Future Past opening next week, Ray Subers of the always awesome Box Office Mojo is predicting that Godzilla will end up over $230 million domestically, which would leave it for the time being in third place for 2014 behind The LEGO Movie and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Subers is calling for around $200 million for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 when it’s all said and done). Godzilla was reported to have a budget of around $160 million, so that will end up as money well spent.

With that in mind, it’s not surprising that there are already talks of a sequel in the works, which could end up benefiting Universal as Legendary’s distribution deal with Warner Bros. ends this year. In any case, it’s a welcome triumph for Godzilla in the U.S., a great way to wash the wretched Matthew Broderick-starring 1998 film out of one’s mind forever, and one of the best reasons yet to visit the closest possible IMAX theater. Congrats big guy!

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