Japan’s most recognizable cinema star shows no signs of losing his ability to captivate global audiences, after Godzilla Minus Zero – a foreign language film – topped the US box office in its opening weekend.
The film – the 39th in a franchise dating back to 1954 – grossed $63 million worldwide, including $31.6 million in the United States and Canada, where it set an opening weekend revenue record for the largest live-action foreign language film. It is broadcast in Japanese with English subtitles.
Moviegoers were just as captivated in Japan, where the sequel to 2003’s Oscar-winning 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 “died” at the bottom of the ocean – the creature has resurfaced to meet a new threat to the country’s attempts to rebuild after World War II: a dragon-like beast called Ghidorah.
The film, directed by Takashi Yamazaki, shows a radioactively regenerated Godzilla confronting his three-headed foe – who destroys buildings with lightning fired from his mouth – with the help of human intervention.
“This historic opening demonstrates how deeply connected audiences around the world are to Godzilla and 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 this belief.”
In Japan, Godzilla earned ($5.75 million) on its opening day on November 3, setting a box office revenue record for the first day of a direct-to-video release in the country and, according to Toho, more than double the opening day revenue generated by Godzilla Minus One.
Minus Zero is considered a live-action film because it was mostly filmed on location, including at a sports park in Ibaraki, northeast of Tokyo, 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 around the world had far exceeded expectations.
“This weekend’s opening takes Japanese production to a new level – it’s nearly three times the previous opening (of Godzilla Minus One) in December 2023,” wrote industry analyst David A Gross.
The latest Godzilla film faces competition from Indian epic Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, which grossed $55.7 million in its opening weekend. The Hindi-language blockbuster – the most expensive Indian film ever made – grossed $8.7 million in the United States and $32 million in India.
Both Godzilla Minus Zero and Ramayana were produced in the Imax format, with the former receiving an Imax-only advance release last week. Large-format screens appear to have sparked audience interest, generating 34% of Godzilla’s box office in its opening weekend.
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