When Godzilla: King of the Monsters opens in theaters worldwide this weekend, the kaiju-sized sequel is poised to conquer the global box office.
The sequel to the 2014 American Godzilla reboot is predicted by entertainment analysts to earn $230-235 million worldwide its opening weekend, with an estimated $180 million earned overseas, predominantly from China and Japan.
Should the box office estimates prove accurate, King of the Monsters will become the highest earning opening weekend of any installment of Legendary Entertainment's MonsterVerse to date, topping Godzilla's $196 million opening in 2014 and Kong: Skull Island's $146.1 million opening in 2017.
With a reported production budget of $170 million before the costs of marketing and distribution, Warner Bros. is hoping for strong word-of-mouth buzz to beat out the mixed critical reception to the film. At the time of writing, the film has a critics score of 48% on Rotten Tomatoes, the weakest of any entry in the MonsterVerse by a considerable margin. However, with Godzilla a much more lucrative brand in East Asia, the Chinese and Japanese box office will likely remain strong beyond its opening weekend.
Directed by Michael Dougherty, Godzilla: King of the Monsters stars Vera Farmiga, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Kyle Chandler, Millie Bobby Brown, Bradley Whitford, Thomas Middleditch, Charles Dance, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Aisha Hinds and Zhang Ziyi. The film opens May 31.
via Deadline