Hmmmm... I may have written the big fella off too soon.
The overnight screening numbers are in and they came in at $9.3 million. Most folks in Hollywood had expected more like 6.5-7.5 million. Here are some recent comparison numbers of Thursday late-night numbers:
Catching Fire - $25.3 mil
Man of Steel - $21 mil
Iron Man 3 - $15.6 mil
Cap 2 - $10.2 mil
Godzilla - $9.3 mil
Hobbit 2 - $8.8 mil
Spidey 2 - $8.7 mil
Thor 2 - $7.1 mil
Pacific Rim - $3.6 mil
This is not a complete list, obviously, but shows some similar kind of films all released in the past year (reducing the impact of ticket price inflation on the numbers). Given that list, the $9.3 mil start is really, really strong for Godzilla.
Still, no one is expecting it to maintain that lead on Spidey and pull in over $90 mil this weekend. Most analysts still seem to think that we are looking at a start in the mid-70s. If it touches $80 mil, that will be a strong sign. Less than $70 mil would be a real problem in terms of it reaching the Top 5.
-Jason "anyone see it last night and want to talk about it?" Evans