‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ makes monster debut at the box office

Godzilla is once again proving to be a formidable box-office force, with the latest installment in the long-running kaijū (monster) franchise setting records in Japan before making a powerful debut abroad.

“Godzilla Minus Zero,” directed by Takashi Yamazaki, opened in Japan on Nov. 3 — Japan’s designated “Godzilla Day” in honor of when the original “Godzilla” debuted in Japanese theaters in 1954 — earning ¥910 million ($5.75 million) and attracting more than 590,000 moviegoers on its first day.

According to the film’s official X account, the opening-day takings marked the highest single-day box office revenue for a live-action film in Japanese history. A subsequent post announced that domestic attendance had passed 1 million within four days of release.

The sequel to 2023’s “Godzilla Minus One” continued its strong run overseas, opening in 3,254 North American theaters on Friday and grossing $14.5 million on opening day, taking the top spot in the daily box-office rankings.

It went on to gross $31.6 million over its opening weekend, making it the biggest debut to date for distributor Gkids and the strongest opening for a live-action foreign-language film since 2004’s “Hero.”

“Godzilla Minus Zero” is the first Japanese feature shot for IMAX screens, and it has brought in $21.3 million worldwide through Sunday from IMAX screens alone.

It recently screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival, which wrapped on Wednesday, as the event’s centerpiece film.

Its predecessor, “Godzilla Minus One,” earned roughly $105.4 million worldwide and became the highest grossing Japanese-language live-action film ever released in North America. It also made history as the first Japanese film to win the Academy Award for best visual effects at the 96th Academy Awards in 2024.

“When we were making ‘Minus One,’ going overseas wasn’t even a consideration, and it ended up reaching so many people,” Yamazaki, who also handled the screenplay and visual effects for both films, told The Japan Times in a recent interview. “Making something rooted in home isn’t the opposite of making something for the world.

“If we tried to imitate Hollywood, there’d be no point. Not thinking about overseas audiences is, paradoxically, how we think about them. That’s the only way Japanese films can really travel.”