Legendary Picture's Godzilla exceeds industry expectations and has the biggest opening weekend of any monster movie to date in the US.

Boxofficemojo reports Godzilla, with a $160 million production budget, has raked in $93.2 million in domestic box office during its first weekend.

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This far exceeds the expectations of production companies Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures, who estimated the opening weekend to be a mere $70 million.

This comes as a good surprise considering the disappointing turn by similarly themed Pacific Rim last year.

This puts Godzilla on top of the list of biggest monster movie opening weekends of all time, besting Jurassic Park: The Lost World, which scored $72 million in its first three days back in 1997.

Currently screened in 3,952 screens across the US, Godzilla has taken in $23,584 per theatre. This is compared to The Lost World at $21,985 and third place Jurassic Park III at $14,784.

Also of note is that franchise-hit Star Trek: Into Darkness took in less money over the same four days last year than Godzilla did in its first three.

The new numbers are just shy of the record-holder of the year, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which raked in $95 million during its opening weekend.

Industry experts, however, claim the difference in numbers is due to Captain America being a sequel with a built-in audience.

Godzilla, on the other hand, is considered a stand-alone film, albeit of a previously established franchise.

It was also viewed by many with skepticism following the critically derided 1998 film of the same name, which took in a disappointing $44 million its first weekend.

Analysts attribute the success to the intense marketing campaign conducted by Warner Bros. Whereas Pacific Rim emphasized the monsters and machines fighting large-scale battles, the promotional media machine behind Godzilla has been focusing mainly on the human drama involved in a natural disaster.

The first trailers set a distinctly different tone from the other film, with a more serious and ominous feel promoted through eerie soundtrack choices culled from 2001: A Space Odyssey and emphasizing dialogue by co-star Bryan Cranston warning of an unknown threat.

Promotion also weighed heavily on the presence of Cranston, who is considered hot property following the finale of critically acclaimed TV show Breaking Bad, which propelled Cranston to TV super-stardom. The move can be seen as somewhat misleading as official sources say the lead is actually occupied by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, of Kick-Ass fame, and Cranston is a supporting actor with limited screen time.

Likewise, promotional material clearly attempted to distinguish the film from its 1998 predecessor, with multiple interviews and press releases stating that the 2014 film will be closer to the original Japanese franchise than the 1998 film.

The official support by the studio behind the original franchise, Toho, is also said to have been instrumental in securing the pre-existing fan base.

Audience demographics indicate that Godzilla not only drew in a larger female audience than expected at 42%, but that it also included young and older audiences alike.

Insiders say the younger audiences were drawn in by the large-scale spectacle and the older by a sense of nostalgia for the old Godzilla brand.

The Godzilla franchise started with the original Japanese film Gojira in 1954 and was followed by no less than 30 films and two animated TV series. As many of the sequels were never released theatrically in the US, corresponding box office numbers are unavailable.

Worldwide, Godzilla earned $103 million from 64 different markets over the same weekend, with the biggest markets being UK and Russia. More than half of the reported revenue was from 3D ticket sales.

The film has yet to be released in China (June 13) and Japan (July 25) but is speculated to reach $400 million worldwide once it does.

Though no official reports indicate talks of a sequel, director Gareth Edwards has stated in the past that if the first film is a success, he will be on board for a second.

Edwards went on to express his interest for a sequel being a remake of the original Japanese film Destroy All Monsters (1968), which featured the most creatures assembled in a Godzilla movie up to that point.

TagsGodzilla, Opening Weekend, Biggest, Record, Jurassic Park, Gojira, Gareth Edwards, Warner Bros, Legendary Pictures, Pacific Rim, Captain America