Godzilla: King of the Monsters is about massive creatures known as titans that beat the hell out of each other. While the main characters of the movie are larger than life, the movie itself wasn't all that big when it opened domestically. However, it seems the film has been taking the slow and steady approach and now, after three weekends, the film has successfully crossed the $100 million mark domestically.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters has fared a bit better around the world than it has locally, and the film has brought in a total of $366 million globally, about double the film's budget, so it's not in danger of complete failure, though it has had a somewhat tougher road than the previous Godzilla, film, or the related Kong: Skull Island.
The previous Godzilla nearly broke the $100 million mark on its opening weekend, as the film grossed $93 million upon release back in 2014. By the Monday of opening week, the film has had $100 million, so it took the movie all of four days.
King of the Monsters hit $100 million on Saturday of this past weekend, so it took the sequel 23 days to get to that mark.
By comparison, Kong: Skull Island hit $100 million on the Saturday of its second weekend in theaters, so it was done in 9 days.
While Godzilla: King of the Monsters looks to be doing ok in an absolute sense, it's still got a lot of ground to make up compared to its predecessors. Both earlier films did over $500 million at the global box office and at this point it seems pretty close to impossible that King of the Monsters will be able to match that feat, no matter how much time the film is given.
Godzilla is being lumped in with a number of film sequels that seem to be underperforming this summer movie season. Dark Phoenix was a bomb without question. Other movies like Secret Life of Pets 2 and Men in Black International have not done the business that one expects from sequels.
Even Toy Story 4's opening weekend came in "below expectations," though, when your expectations are above the $120 million the movie did domestically, it's maybe an easier pill to swallow.
The "Monsterverse" movies have been seeing diminishing returns since the release of the previous Godzilla. It makes one wonder what the future holds for the next movie Godzilla Vs. Kong. That movie has finished filming and is set to open next May. The fact that it's bringing the two most popular giant monsters together might be enough to bring the crowds back. If not, and this trend continues, we could see that film have even more trouble at the box office than King of the Monsters has had.
