Monsters University may have taken the top spot this weekend with $88 million, but the big item for us was World War Z. The movie not only earned $66 million in the US, but it also picked up an additional $45 million internationally and has received a generally positive response from critics and moviegoers.
While its success may seem like a given to some, this is the biggest budget ever given to a zombie movie, with reshoots and script changes leading people to believe that the movie would be a disaster. Instead, World War Z ended up having the biggest opening ever for a zombie movie in the US, proving that the zombie craze is far from over. The highest grossing zombie movie in theaters has been Zombieland with $75.5 million for its full theatrical run. World War Z almost beat that in it's first weekend alone and will easily pass that number this coming week. It will have have no problem crossing the $100 million mark, so now it's about seeing how high it will go. With an estimated production budget of $190 million, not including marketing costs, World War Z needs to pull in over $400 million worldwide.
World War Z is unlikely to be considered an instant classic by many zombie fanatics, but it is interesting to see how it stacks up against other movies. Shaun of the Dead's lifetime US theatrical gross was $13.5 million, Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake had a lifetime US gross of $59 million in the US, and back in 1985, George A. Romero's Day of the Dead earned $5 million. Previously, zombie movies had drawn in a smaller audience, but with the success of The Walking Dead, zombies are bigger than ever and we're interested to see if World War Z's success pushes other studios to move ahead with big budget zombie movies.
Next week sees the release of The Heat and White House Down. Here are the top ten results for this weekend:
1. Monsters University - $82,000,000
2. World War Z - $66,000,000
3. Man of Steel - $41,215,000
4. This Is The End - $13,000,000
5. Now You See Me - $7,870,000
6. Fast & Furious 6 - $4,725,000
7. The Internship - $3,425,000
8. The Purge - $3,412,000
9 Star Trek Into Darkness - $3,000,000
10. Iron Man 3 - $2,175,000
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