Toho’s lizard king generated $63 million worldwide in its opening weekend to roar past international competition.
Takashi Yamazaki returned to the director’s chair with Godzilla Minus Zero,
the 39th installment in a franchise stretching back to 1954, according to reporting in The Guardian, according to Theguardian.
Operating with a budget of less than $20 million, the production serves as a sequel to Yamazaki’s 2023 film Godzilla Minus One,
which made history by winning the Academy Award for best visual effects as the first Japanese film to win in that category.
The sequel earned $31.6 million across 3,254 cinemas in the United States and Canada, establishing a new record for opening weekend receipts for a live-action foreign-language film in North America, as reported by Screen Daily, according to Anime News Network.
GKIDS distributed the film stateside, where it surpassed the distribution label’s previous high set by Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron,
which had debuted with $13 million. The live-action launch also bested the historical benchmark previously held by Zhang Yimou’s Hero, which opened to $17.9 million in 2004.
Godzilla Minus Zero
easily outpaced Warner Bros. animated family comedy The Cat in the Hat,
which was produced for $86 million and took second place domestically with $20.5 million.
Outside North America, the film brought in another $31.4 million from international territories, which included $17 million in Japan following its domestic debut on Godzilla Day, November 3, commemorating the anniversary of the first franchise release in 1954.
The opening day in Japan pulled in 590,000 tickets totaling 910 million yen (about $5.75 million), marking a 201% increase over the opening day earnings of its predecessor.
Premium large formats accounted for 74 percent of the total box office take, according to Variety.
IMAX screenings contributed $21.3 million worldwide, marking the biggest global IMAX debut for a Japanese title and capturing 34% of the worldwide box-office take.
In North America, IMAX generated $12.7 million across 429 venues, representing 40% of its domestic haul, while overseas markets added $8.6 million across 421 screens in 64 territories, highlighted by a record $4 million launch in Japan.
With Godzilla Minus Zero, Takashi Yamazaki and our friends at Toho have delivered a tremendous feat of filmmaking with arresting visuals that somehow top its predecessor; we are proud to call this the first Filmed For IMAX release from Japan and delighted fans are overwhelmingly choosing to experience it in on our screens,
said Rich Gelfond, CEO of IMAX, as reported by Deadline.
Set in Japan in 1949, the film follows a country devastated after World War II as it attempts to rebuild while facing a new threat from a radioactively regenerated monster and a dragon-like beast named Ghidorah.
The characters Kōichi Shikishima and Noriko are now married and raising a young daughter named Akiko, attempting to build a peaceful life amidst ongoing national trauma.
The central clash pits the title monster against its three-headed nemesis, which destroys buildings with lightning bolts fired from its mouth.
The Independent reported that Yamazaki drew inspiration for the brutal showdown from watching his two pet cats fight.
I see two creatures fighting each other and I tend to think about my cats when that happens,
Yamazaki told IGN.
Toho Global pursued a near-simultaneous worldwide rollout for the sequel, opening the project across Latin America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand in the same week.
Critical reception for Yamazaki’s movie includes an 89% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 74 on Metacritic.
Our first near-simultaneous global release was built on that belief,
said Koji Ueda, president of Toho Global.
Earlier coverage: Godzilla Minus Zero Projected to Earn $25M-$35M in US Debut