"Godzilla" devoured the "Neighbors," and "Amazing Spider-Man 2" may as well have been a midnight snack. The rebooted Japanese monster reigned supreme at the weekend box office, taking in more than $93 million.
The 3-D film, which cost $160 million to make, earned $103 million internationally, Warner Bros. said, sending the fire-breathing monster to a global total of $196 million.
The biggest opening weekend of the year remains "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," which barely beat "Godzilla," earning $95 million in April.
At least one "Godzilla" sequel is planned, according to Reuters.
It's a glorious return to the spotlight for the giant monster, who turns 60 years old in 2014. He first starred in 1954's Japanese-language "Godzilla," and has stayed a lively franchise for decades. The 1998 American film, starring Matthew Broderick, received mostly negative reviews, and planned sequels to that film were canceled.
In the current film, Bryan Cranston, of "Breaking Bad" fame, plays an American who loses his wife at a Japanese nuclear plant, where they both work, after an unexplained disaster. Fifteen years later, his son (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), now a trained explosive ordinance disposal officer, tries to help his father investigate the government cover-up — just in time for Godzilla and two other monsters to rise up and duke it out on the streets of Honolulu, Las Vegas and San Francisco.
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