Coming into this weekend, for the most part The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was expected to hold on to the top spot, though not without at least somewhat of a challenge from the newcomer Neighbors. In the end, the race for weekend crown wasn’t even close, as audiences abandoned the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and moved in with Seth Rogen and Zac Efron in droves.

Neighbors

Neighbors was widely expected to debut somewhere around $35 million, which would be in line with some of Seth Rogen’s bigger openings, as well as a reasonable debut for a raunchy, R-rated comedy. That said, Neighbors blew away expectations with a huge $51.1 million debut. That puts it in the same neighborhood as The Hangover ($45 million) and Ted ($54 million). Any way you slice it, this opening is fantastic. Great word of mouth coupled with good reviews and funny previews, as well Zac Efron and Rose Byrne to bring in female moviegoers, was just a recipe for success. If the word of mouth holds up and Neighbors posts good legs, it could be looking at a gross in excess of $150 million.

Last weekend’s champ, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, dropped 59% to $37.2 million. Word of mouth on this latest Spidey seems really mixed, and especially with the competition coming up, the legs don’t look to be particularly good. Peter Parker has a total of $148 million and could up around $220 million, which would be by far a new low mark for this franchise. Here’s hoping the Sinister Six can reinject some life into it.

The Other Woman fell 65% to $9.3 million. An unexpectedly big opening followed by unexpectedly decent legs has allowed this comedy to gross an impressive $61.8 million. Following in fourth, Heaven is for Real dipped just 19% to $7 million, lifting its total to $75.2 million. The Other Woman could finish around $75-80 million while Heaven is for Real should end up with about $85 million.

Rebounding nicely, Captain America: The Winter Soldier eased a slim 28% down to $5.6 million. With $245 million in the bank, it should have just enough left in the tank to beat out The Lego Movie to become the biggest movie of this year’s winter/spring season. Also dipping 34%, Rio 2 grossed $5.1 million. That puts its solid total at $113.2 million. Mom’s Night Out opened with $4.2 million. And that’s…..all I have to say about that.

Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return grossed $3.7 million. Like with Mom’s Night Out, I got nothin’. Divergent spends likely its last week in the top ten, dropping 22% to $1.7 million. Give it $145 million in total. We finish off the top ten with Brick Mansions, which has somehow spent three weekends in the top ten. Anyway, the Paul Walker flick fell 60% to $1.5 million. An $18.3 million ain’t half bad.

The box office has already picked up in a big way these last two weekends, and it should only get more interesting as the highly-anticipated new Godzilla film crashes down on the box office. Expectations are kind of all over the place, though they seem to average around $70 million. Next weekend also brings Million Dollar Arm, from which I mean to take nothing away, but come on, we all know the real story is the giant kaiju. I’m looking forward to both the film and to see its box office performance. I hope you are too. Until we meet again.