Godzilla: King of the Monsters is go-go-going to win out the weekend, but the question remains whether it can compete with its fellow Warner Bros. Monster-Verse companions. Director Michael Dougherty's creature feature took in $19.6 million on Friday night, including a mighty healthy $6.3 million in Thursday night previews. That's a bit behind Kong: Skull Island, which nabbed $20.1 million in its opening Friday before debuting to $61 million, although King of the Monsters had a better Thursday night. Of course, neither had much of a chance of catching the surprise hit that was 2014's Godzilla, which soared above expectations to a $93 million opening weekend. Basically, you have to imagine WB is aware their Kaiju series is trending down, but the door is still open for King of the Monsters to snag a $50+ million opening.

King of the Monsters is a sequel to Godzilla, a stop-gap between the Big G's reintroduction into the mainstream and his Adam Wingard-directed showdown with King Kong coming in 2020. Sally Hawkins and Ken Watanabe reprise their roles from the first film, and joining in on the monster mash action is Millie Bobby Brown, Vera Farmiga, Kyle Chandler, Bradley Whitford, and Thomas Middleditch.

Meanwhile, Paramount's Elton John biopic Rocketman is battling it out for second place in its first weekend. The film, which sees Kingsman star Taron Egerton taking on the lead role, brought in $9.2 million on Friday night, behind the $11.9 million of Disney's Aladdin in that film's second weekend. (To be fair, it's Rocketman's R-rating going up against Aladdin's family-film audience.) Still, Rocketman is looking at a projected opening weekend in the $25 million range.

The Universal and Blumhouse production Ma scared up $7.2 million on Friday night. The newcomer, which stars Octavia Spencer as a particularly menacing party host, will likely end its first weekend around $18-19 million, landing above John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum in that film's third weekend.

Take a look at Friday’s numbers below and check back tomorrow to see a few more records get broken. (Numbers via Box Office Mojo)

Rank

Title

Friday

Total

1.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters  

$19,605,000

$19,605,000

2.

Aladdin 

$11,907,000

$154,604,174

3.

Rocketman           

$9,200,000

$9,200,000

4.

Ma   

$7,240,000

$7,240,000

5.

John Wick: Chpater 3 - Parabellum     

$3,000,000

$117,652,812

rocketman-elton-john-taron-egerton-images
Image via Paramount Pictures
aladdin-will-smith-genie
Image via Disney
ma-octavia-spencer-image
Image via Universal Pictures