Godzilla Minus Zero takes US box office by storm in opening weekend

Japan’s most recognisable film star shows no sign of losing its ability to captivate global audiences, after Godzilla Minus Zero – a foreign language film - swept to the top of the US box office on its opening weekend.

The film – the 39th in a franchise stretching back to 1954 – generated $63m worldwide, including $31.6m in the US and Canada, where it set a record for opening weekend receipts for the biggest live-action foreign-language film. It is shown in Japanese with English subtitles.

Filmgoers were just as enthralled in Japan, where the sequel to the 2003 Oscar-winning film Godzilla Minus One set a domestic record for a live-action film, according to the Kyodo news agency.

In Godzilla Minus Zero, set in Japan in 1949 – two years after it lay “dead” at the bottom of the ocean – the creature resurfaced to respond to a new threat to the country’s attempts to rebuild after the second world war: a dragon-like beast called Ghidorah.

The film, directed by Takashi Yamazaki, shows a radioactively regenerated Godzilla confront its three-headed nemesis – which destroys buildings with lightning bolts fired from its mouth – with the help of human intervention.

“This historic opening shows how deeply audiences around the world connect with Godzilla and with Takashi Yamazaki’s vision,” Koji Ueda, president of Toho Global, which produced the film, said in a statement. “Our first near-simultaneous global release was built on that belief.”

In Japan, Godzilla earned ($5.75m) on its opening day on 3 November, setting a box office revenue record for the first day of a live-action release in the country and, according to Toho, more than double the opening day earnings generated by Godzilla Minus One.

Minus Zero qualifies as a live-action film as it was principally shot on-location, including at a sports park in Ibaraki, northeast of Tokyo, that was used for large crowd scenes and at a temple in Maizuru, Kyoto prefecture.

Industry experts said the success of its global release on Imax and regular screens worldwide had easily exceeded expectations.

“This weekend’s opening takes the Japanese production to a new level – it’s nearly three times the previous opening [of Godzilla Minus One] in December 2023,” industry analyst David A Gross wrote.

The latest Godzilla film faces competition from the Indian epic Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, which earned $55.7m on its opening weekend. The Hindi-language blockbuster – the most expensive Indian film ever made – made $8.7m in the US and $32m in India.

Godzilla Minus Zero and Ramayana were produced in the Imax format, with the former receiving an early Imax-only release last week. The large-format screens appear to have driven audience interest, generating 34% of Godzilla’s box office take on its opening weekend.