Godzilla projected to have $60 million opening at box office.

Optimism is running high, I see. Good. We need more of that.

$60 million is fine, but with X-Men coming out the following week, it will have to do better if it wants to hit the $800 million mark worldwide,

Is this only for opening day on Friday? Or is it the entire weekend? Cause 60 million dosent seem that impressive for the weekend? But I have to realize that the movie will also be out in thearters for weeks.

Well I'm not going to make any predictons on the box office just yet. As they say, it ain't over until the fat lady sings, so its premature at this point for me to give a good estimate of the expected box office.

However, I do want to know how much this movie has to make for a sequel to happen.

^ we don't know that yet. I say a good amount. :) and critics, and fan reviews.

A good rule of thumb is 1.5X the budget domestic = more movies. you could get away with less (depending on over-seas, but it's unlikely), but that would almost make it a sure bet. So that means 225 million =almost a sure sequel (minus any leagal or other issues). At 60-70 million opening, it should end up in that territory. (movies tend to make just under 1/3 of their box office revinue in the first weekend, obviously, that is flexible, depending on reviews/word of mouth). Also, 60-70 million is a great opening weekend, it may not be up there with marvel movies or Harry potter, but it's nothing to be ashamed of.

@godzillatheking:

I remember after the movie "Jaws", there was a lot of clamoring for a sequel.  In those days there weren't a lot of sequels.  Steven Spielberg said if someone could come up with  a legitimate story, he would do it.  In fact Universal Studios intorduced a $10,000 contest for anyone who could come up with a viable story.  Nobody won.  But Universal went ahead with the sequel anyway, minus Spielberg.  "Jaws" made money but the movie sucked.  Godzilla would have the same problem.  Do any of you really believe that watching Godzilla do battle with diiferent monsters would be interesting to the general public?   Maybe a remake of King Kong vs Godzilla would spark interest, other than that I see a nothing but flops.

RateDrex-

No.

You must have missed the fact that Toho made a whole series of Godzilla vs sequels. If they were all flops, why do you think Toho would have made any sequels?

There is a long list of kaijus that Godzilla can fight against, couple that with an interesting story and for sure it can work. 

Therefore it is premature and pure speculation to say a sequel cannot work at this point. 

To speculate that there may be a sequel to happen, I believe and hope, if Gareth Edwards is attached, that it will be along the lines of Monsters.

The world has been shaken by kaiju attacks, and must fight back somehow... And Godzilla is their answer.

@godzillatheking

No Godzilla movie has EVER done well in the U.S., except the horrific Godzilla 1998.  Most people find it cheesy to see monsters fighting each other. 

@Ratedrex

If that were true many of the movies from the 1950s-1960s wouldn't have been released in theaters in the U.S. and the series would've been much shorter. The Americanized Godzilla: King of the Monsters is what shot the series to international popularity. Overseas success is why King Kong vs. Godzilla was made, which was also a massive success and is still the most attended Godzilla movie in the world-- America included. Overseas success is also why Henry G. Haperstein's American studio co-funded Monster Zero, Frankenstein Conquers the World and War of the Gargantuas and turned Nick Adams and Russ Tamblyn over to Toho.

So plenty of Godzilla movies have done well here, just not since 1985.

And the new film doesn't need $800 million worldwide to be successful. $500 million would do just fine.

Ratedrex their has only been two cgi godzilla fiilms in the us 98 and 2014 if your saying all godzilla films suck? Then you are blind, and should not be concidred a fan. This godzilla movie is the one we all godzilla fans can be proud of! This godzilla movie is going to be great! I know it we know, and you know it! So shut up and leave your negative comments to yourself! Nobody wants to hear your bullshit!

^Okay, that's a little much. Summer down guys.

$60 Million is not a very strong opening weekend, especially with X-Men coming out just a week after. Considering an average of 50% diminishing returns, and probably only a 4-5 week run. That indicates Godzilla will only be bringing in $110-$120 mil domestic. Potentially closer to just $100 depending on how much competition X-Men offers. Out of that, the studio will probably only reap $75 million, the rest going to the theaters. Overall, thin sauce.

What was encouraging, was in one of those Box Office reports, they said the Prints and Advertising budget was only $100 mil. Meaning, the studio only needs to make $260 million to break even, as opposed to a $300-$350 million number that some have previously estimated. Similarly, this basically confirms $500 mil as the 'sequel' point, rather than the $500-$700 mil range that people had been estimating.

Even with a watered down domestic take, the International Box Office is in a strong position to make up the difference...even if Toho takes a 50%+ cut from Japan and/or China decides not to pick up the movie. Basically, long story short, after reading these reports, I've never been more confident of a sequel than I am now. 

As far as sequel ideas: There are plenty of good ones that aren't far fetched. The key is to focus on human response to the monsters, rather than the monster duels themselves. 

A story line similar to Monsters' premise, of Godzilla/Muto quarantined into 'Zones' and the human struggle to contain them. 

Or maybe a darker, post apocalpytic take: fast forward 20 years, and the monsters really have knocked us down several notches, and the movie follows a small band of survivors and how they are forced to live their lives. 

Either of those ideas  (and many others) could serve as a viable platform for a sequel, while avoiding Toho tropes about alien invasions n' stuff like that. 

RatedRex' post is actually pretty good. This isn't the 60s/70s anymore. The general public opinion has changed. What was a "success" back then won't fly these days.

I had never thought about it before now, but he brought up a very good point. And anyone citing the Vs. series of films as conclusive evidence that a Vs. film would do well today and then going on to call him out for not being a "true fan" then, well, you should really step back and reevaluate yourself as a fan because you are the worst kind: A blind one.

I'm firmly in the "This film should be a one and done" type deal. This film's going to be golden amongst fans, but its going to take the mainstream crowd to really give it a boost and I think it's more of a novelty to most people than anything else since it's "new". What we're seeing now will not carry over to a sequel no matter what it's about. A second attempt with disastrous consequences would surely put Godzilla in the ground for good and I don't want to see that happen.

Madison-

Well hopefully it can go above $60 million. We'll see. There could also be the possibility it can have a "long life" at the box office so even if a pariticular weekend of box office receipt may not do as good as anticipated, it can be compensated by decent returns from a strong box office run in the long-term. Although with the competition it is facing, that is going to be tough.

Cornclotgrumble-

I respect your view and you are entitled to it, but I don't think you back-up your arguments very well. Why is it "blind" to say the Godzilla vs series have done well? Godzilla 1985 was not a "vs" movie. The 98 movie failed because it was not a Godzilla movie. Sony never bothered to market Godzilla 2000 well but just dumped it onto the cinemas due to contractual requirement with Toho. In all those cases either the movie wasn't good or the studio behind it (Sony) didn't take the movie seriously and gave it an half-ass effort.

But here, we got a studio that care and understands Godzilla. We got a director with a real passion for Godzilla. Therefore it is premature to say Godzilla is only a one-shot deal. 

This is not Jaws. Legendary pictures have a relatively good track record. Seldom do they produce a sequel just for the sake of printing more $$$. They put real effort into making a decent one. So a sequel can work.