‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Stomps Past a Box Office Record That Stood for Over 20 Years

Godzilla recently celebrated his 72nd birthday, yet the King of the Monsters is showing no signs of slowing down. Director Takashi Yamazaki has revived one of the longest-running franchises in movies by bringing the series back to its Japanese roots.

That revival began with ‘Godzilla Minus One.’ The film won the Oscar for best visual effects and became the highest-grossing Japanese live-action film ever in the US and Canada, despite a budget under $15 million. Its final domestic haul reached $57.1 million.

Its debut was far more modest. ‘Godzilla Minus One’ opened with $11.4 million, landing behind the Beyoncé concert film ‘Renaissance.’ That made this weekend’s numbers for the sequel a very big deal.

According to a post from DiscussingFilm, ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ has opened with $31.6 million domestically, the biggest domestic opening ever for a live-action international film. That total topped the weekend chart and set a record debut for a foreign-language film at the North American box office. The movie did it from 3,254 theaters.

The “ever” in that claim comes with a small asterisk. The previous live-action mark belonged to 2004’s ‘Hero,’ which launched with $17.9 million. ‘The Passion of the Christ’ opened with $83.8 million that same year despite its largely Aramaic dialogue, and last year’s anime ‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ debuted with $70.6 million.

Large-format screens did a lot of the heavy lifting. The film earned $14.7 million on its opening day. It also pulled in $21.3 million globally from IMAX, or 34% of its total, and made about $17 million in Japan over the weekend.

The film’s economics look just as impressive. It carries a budget of less than $20 million and is sure to blow past its predecessor’s $57.1 million haul. Since premiering last month at the New York Film Festival, it has earned a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes and an “A” CinemaScore from audiences.

Its competition didn’t fare nearly as well. Warner Bros.’ animated ‘The Cat in the Hat,’ featuring the voice of Bill Hader, opened with $20.5 million at the domestic box office, and its reviews stood at 44% fresh. The film cost $86 million to make, and Angel Studios’ ‘Drummer Boy’ took third place with $9.3 million.

The release strategy appears to have paid off too. Toho Global president Koji Ueda said in a statement that the opening shows how deeply audiences around the world connect with Godzilla, and he described it as the studio’s first near-simultaneous global release. Another non-English film, the Hindi-language epic ‘Ramayana: Rise of a Legend,’ also scored the widest North American release ever for an Indian film, with $8.7 million.

The overall market got a lift as well. After a sleepy Halloween weekend, total ticket sales rose 96.8% from the previous weekend, according to Rentrak. That is a welcome sign for theaters heading into the busy holiday stretch.

Hollywood may be watching closely. The next English-language Godzilla film, ‘Godzilla x Kong: Supernova,’ arrives from Warner Bros. and Legendary in March. This result could either whet audiences’ appetites or make for an awkward comparison. Either way, Godzilla has made it clear that a smaller, subtitled monster movie can still stomp the competition.