Box Office Preview: Creature Feature

Gareth Edwards' great looking Godzilla (reviews) reboot finally arrives...I said after I watched the teaser trailer and the overseas trailer that I thought that it was it safe to say that I am 99 % sure that this film will be far superior to the dreadful 1998 film by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin...I still think that...Fingers crossed kids. Ryan a member of my "Movie Posse" already saw the pic and he shared his thoughts on Wednesday...

Counter to that is Disney's true story baseball biopic Million Dollar Arm (reviews). The film is based on the true story of how sports agent J.B. Bernstein (Jon Hamm) and his partner Aash Shah ("The Daily Show" regular Aasif Mandvi) discovered professional pitchers Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel through a reality show he staged in India using Cricket players.

Pamela McClintock of THR:

The summer's second tentpole, Godzilla, could stomp past $65 million in its North American debut, a promising start for the $160 million monster movie.

Godzilla, hoping to finally launch a Hollywood studio franchise headlined by the giant lizard, is a defining moment for Legendary Pictures, which spearheaded the reboot. Legendary financed 75 percent of Godzilla, with Warner Bros. putting up the rest of the money.

Warners and Legendary are also opening Godzilla in 60 international markets this weekend (box office observers believe the movie could do even bigger business overseas).

An origins story, director Gareth Edwards' Godzilla tries to remain true to the iconic Japanese Godzilla movies made by Japan's Toho studio.

Godzilla stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins and David Strathairn.

Warners and Legendary believe the ensemble cast, and particularly Cranston, will help to lure females. According to those with access to tracking, males are by far the most keen to see the film, but interest among females is solid.

Godzilla opens 16 years after Sony unsuccessfully tried to launch its own franchise with Roland Emmerich's Godzilla, starring Matthew Broderick.

The only other film opening nationwide this weekend is Disney's Million Dollar Arm, starring Jon Hamm as a sports agent who travels to India to recruit baseball pitchers. The studio believes the $25 million film, rated PG, will draw families and serve as counter programming to action-oriented fare. Million Dollar Arm is eyeing a modest opening in the $10 million to $12 million range.

Directed by Craig Gillespie from a script by Tom McCarthy, Million Dollar Arm is based on the true story of baseball pitchers Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel. The movie also stars Bill Paxton, Suraji Sharma, Madhur Mittal, Alan Arkin and Lake Bell.

Mill is solid.ion Dollar Arm will likely lose the No. 2 spot to holdover Neighbors, Universal's R-rated comedy starring Seth Rogen, Zac Efron and Rose Byrne. The move opened to a dazzling $49 million last weekend and has earned $58 million through Tuesday.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2, heading into its third weekend, crossed the $150 million mark in North America on Tuesday and should finish the weekend with a global cume well north of $600 million.

Meantime the film adaptation of author John Green's young adult novel The Fault in Our Stars is tracking for a big opening weekend on June 6th.