Weekend Box Office Report: Godzilla Stomps The Competition

By Bill Wine

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A familiar monster was the big attraction at multiplexes over the weekend.

Godzilla stomped on the competition as soon as it surfaced.

The creature-feature reboot exceeded expectations by earning an estimated $93-million on its debut weekend for a monstrous first-place finish.

Last weekend’s leader – the frat-house comedy, Neighbors – was the distant runnerup with a total of $26-million.

The holdover fantasy-thriller sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, took third with $17-million.

And fourth was the weekend’s other mainstream release, the baseball dramedy, Million Dollar Arm, starring Jon Hamm.

It took in just under $11-million. With industry-wide totals well ahead of last year’s pace, this summer movie season, three weekends in, is off to a very strong start.