Shin Godzilla, the 4K rerelease from GKids, opened to a $1.6 million weekend on 1,290 screens. A cume of $2.5 million has surfaced Tokyo Bay in Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi’s take on the King of the Monsters, which originally opened in Japan in 2016 and was the highest-grossing Japanese-produced Godzilla film prior to 2023’s Godzilla Minus One.
As the Prime Minister of Japan pleads with the public to remain calm, a horrific creature of tremendous size makes landfall in the city, leaving death and destruction in its wake. The government assembles a motley task force to combat the monster and an envoy from the U.S. Department of State delivers a folder of classified documents — on its cover, the word GODZILLA as the origin story to one of cinema’s greatest creations blends action and political satire.
The original Shin Godzilla release grossed $4.4 million domestic and $80.5 million worldwide. Godzilla Minus One slayed at $57 million domestic and $114 million worldwide.
Specialty can be a real grab bag and this week two Indian films also popped. Magnolia Pictures’ music documentary It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley rolled on.
The latter grossed an estimated $240k on 190 screens in week 2 for a cume of $927k. The Amy Berg doc about the influential singer-songwriter who died in 1997 at age 30 after one studio recording, Grace, had a superb opening of $400k at 125 theaters last weekend. Berg interviewed key people Buckley’s life including his mother, Mary Guibert, who was just 17 when she had Jeff, and Buckley’s former romantic partners Rebecca Moore and musician Joan Wasser. As Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast notes, Buckley is more popular now than ever with his iconic cover of the Leonard Cohen song Hallelujah streamed on Spotify an average of 115,000 times a day for more than 400 million streams on the platform.
Prathyangira Cinemas’ Tamil revenge thriller Coolie by Lokesh Kanagaraj and starring Aamir Khan is rounding out the domestic top 10 with a debut weekend of $2.4 million at 800 theaters for a cume through Sunday of $6,3 million, as per Comscore. It’s followed by Yash Raj Films’ War 2 at $1.7 million on 943 screens for a cume of $3.1 million. Directed by Ayan Mukerji, this is is a sequel to War from 2019.
Moderate indie openings: Sony Pictures Classics’ docu-fiction East Of Wall by Kate Beecroft opened at $372k on 626 screens. This is Certified Fresh at 92% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes. After the death of her husband, Tabatha – a young, tattooed, rebellious horse trainer – wrestles with financial insecurity and unresolved grief while providing refuge for a group of wayward teenagers on her broken-down ranch in the Badlands. Tabatha Zimiga and her daughter Porshia star as themselves in the film based on their story.
Atlas Distribution is reporting Chuck Russell’s supernatural horror Witchboard opening at $68k at 580 runs with a cume of $142k. World premiered at Fantasia Festival 2024 and stars Madison Iseman and Aaron Dominguez, who discover and antique pendulum board that’s a dangerous gateway from the past.
Greenwich Entertainment debuted Went Up the Hill to $20k at 132 locations. The ghost story by Samuel Van Grinsven stars Vicky Krieps and Dacre Montgomery.
Limited openings: Usman Riaz’s animated The Glassworker opened to $12.2k at the Angelika in NYC to great reviews and sold-out filmmaker Q&As throughout the weekend. Distributor Watermelon Pictures said Sunday is tracking to be the highest gross of the weekend and as positive word of mouth kicks in. Expands to LA next weekend with a national rollout starting Sept. 5.
Abramorama’s Checkpoint Zoo debuted to $5.3k at an exclusive run at the Quad in NYC. The Joshua Zeman documentary follows a daring rescue led by a heroic team of zookeepers and volunteers who risked their lives to save thousands of animals trapped in a zoo behind enemy lines during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.