Godzilla Minus Zero? Try Godzilla plus 31.6 million.
That’s the estimated cash that Toho’s latest kaiju flick (distributed by GKids here in the States) rampaged to in North America this weekend. That’s not just impressive: It’s record setting. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Godzilla Minus Zero’s debut is now the highest-grossing live-action, foreign-language opening ever. This Japanese film, ironically, has yet to open overseas. And while $31.6 million is not enough to rebuild Tokyo (again), it’s a strong start.
Godzilla led a horde of newcomers stomping into theaters this weekend. In fact, six out of the box office’s top 10 films were newbies.
The Cat in the Hat found its own little haul,
Banking $20.5 million, and that’s not too small.
It wasn’t as much as some thought it would earn,
But it still finished second in this weekend’s turn.
It collected yet more in lands near and far,
Another $10 million to put in its jar.
That’s $30.5 million for those keeping score,
And surely, it’ll earn just a little bit more.
Angel’s Christian-tinged film Drummer Boy thumped its way to a surprise third-place finish, snaring $9.3 million on American shores. Directed and produced by Ben Smallbone and starring his big brother, Joel, Drummer Boy edged past expectations and settled in for a potentially successful run.
The documentary You Can See Everything continues to hold its own against more fictional fare. After spending last week atop the box office, the doc slid to No. 4 but still earned nearly $8.9 million. That pushes You Can See Everything’s total domestic gross to a tidy $79.8 million—making it history’s second highest-grossing documentary in North America (behind Michael Moore’s 2005 Fahrenheit 9/11).
Clayface oozed into fifth place with $6.7 million. The DC supervillain film has now chiseled out $56.6 million domestically and $109 million worldwide. Clayface had some heavy competition, though, with slots five-through-eight separated by less than $700,000.
Among those contenders was Ramayana: Rise of a Legend. This three-hour Hindi-language epic earned $6.2 million in North America to finish seventh (behind sixth-place Wildwood and its $6.6 million). Add in Ramayana’s international gross of $32.8 million, and the Indian film has earned just about $41.4 million.
Wild Horse Nine galloped into eighth place with $6 million. And Jimmy, a faith-friendly biopic about screen legend Jimmy Stewart, closed out the top 10 with a $2.2 million haul.
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