Box office: Godzilla: King of the Monsters stomps out Aladdin with $49 million

All hail the king ... of the box office.

The massive creature feature follow-up to 2014's Godzilla and 2017's Kong: Skull Island had no trouble stomping on the competition during its debut in theaters this weekend. Godzilla: King of the Monsters will wrap up its domestic opening with an atomic-breathing $49 million, which, when compared to the opening figures of Godzilla 2014 ($93 million) and Kong ($61 million), isn't all that promising, especially since it cost $200 million to make. Overseas, the kaiju-on-kaiju mashup snacked on $130 million from 75 international markets, bringing the worldwide total to $179 million.

Directed and co-written by Michael Dougherty (Krampus), the film introduces King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan into Warner Bros. and Legendary's blooming MonsterVerse. Even casual monster movie fans know that these are three of Toho's biggest and most iconic characters (yes, they have enough individual personality to be considered characters) of the last 6+ decades.

The human-based roster is just as impressive, with Millie Bobby Brown, Vera Farmiga, Kyle Chandler, Charles Dance, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Thomas Middleditch, Bradley Whitford, Aisha Hinds, O'Shea Jackson Jr., David Strathairn, and Zhang Ziyi.

The next installment in the MonsterVerse will be Godzilla vs. Kong, which is directed by Adam Wingard (Netflix's Death Note) and hits theaters March 13, 2020.

After two weeks of wishful supremacy, Disney's live-action remake of Aladdin from director Guy Ritchie fell to the No. 2 spot at the North American box office with $42.3 million, bringing its domestic total to $185 million. Abroad, the film used one of its three precious wishes to bring in an added $78 million, ballooning the movie's international total to $446 million. Interestingly, Aladdin's already outdone the final run figures of both Mary Poppins Returns and Dumbo, both of which managed $349 million.

Unable to triumph over the Elton John biopic Rocketman (which took third place), Universal and Blumhouse's Ma nabbed fourth with $18.2 million domestically and $2.8 million internationally for its debut weekend.

Directed and co-written by Tate Taylor (The Help), the horror flick stars Octavia Spencer (Onward) as a woman who begins to terrorize a group of high-school-aged teenagers after they convince her to buy alcohol for them. Juliette Lewis (Nerve) and Luke Evans (Beauty and the Beast) are also a part of the cast.

The unbridled violence of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum was enough to secure Spot No. 5 with an added $11.1 million from North American theaters. Now in its third weekend, the action thriller has amassed $125 million domestically.

Before it opens in theaters this coming Friday (June 7), Universal and Illumination's The Secret Life of Pets 2 fetched $17.2 million from nine markets abroad. The animated comedy features the voices of Patton Oswalt, Eric Stonestreet, Tiffany Haddish, Ellie Kemper, Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, Pete Holmes, Hannibal Buress, Bobby Moynihan, Lake Bell, Nick Kroll, Dana Carvey, and Harrison Ford.

Thanks to an extra $16.4 million worldwide gained from this weekend, Avengers: Endgame is now at $2.713 billion around the globe, just $75 million shy of trumping Avatar's all-time record of $2.78 billion.

Now in its second weekend, Sony's Brightburn is proving itself to be somewhat of a dud, with a little over $2 million added to the bank for a domestic total of $14 million and a worldwide total of $10 million. Produced by James Gunn, the feature is a dark and Twilight Zone-y take on the origin of Superman.

(via Variety 1 & Variety 2 and Box Office Mojo)