Godzilla Minus Zero is opening to an estimated $32 million at the North American box office this weekend, the biggest debut ever for a live-action foreign-language film. Toho’s sequel to Godzilla Minus One, released in North America by GKIDS, took $14.5 million on Friday from 3,254 theaters after $6.7 million in previews that started on Godzilla Day, Tuesday, November 3.
The previous record belonged to Hero, which opened to $17.8 million in 2004. The opening is also the biggest in GKIDS history, and the film is comfortably ahead of Warner Bros.’ The Cat in the Hat for the No. 1 spot. It is more proof that moviegoers are willing to look past the usual blockbusters and give foreign and independent films a real chance.
Premium screens are carrying a large share of the business. IMAX and premium large-format screens account for 74% of the weekend gross, according to Deadline. Minus Zero was shot for IMAX, a first for a Japanese film.
Bigger Than Minus One
Godzilla Minus One opened to $11.4 million in December 2023 and went on to earn about $116 million worldwide on a budget of roughly $15 million. It also won the Oscar for best visual effects, the first Oscar for any Godzilla film.
Takashi Yamazaki returns to write and direct the sequel and to supervise its visual effects again. He has said the new film had a larger budget than Minus One, though the exact figure has not been released.
Even with the increase, Minus Zero was made for far less than a Hollywood monster movie, and it still carries one of the biggest franchise names in film as a direct sequel. That mix of a modest budget and a famous name made it a perfect storm for a new kind of Hollywood hit.
The story picks up in 1949, two years after the first film, and the trailer shows Godzilla reaching New York.
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