Key points
- Godzilla Minus Zero took an estimated $31.6 million in North America over its November 6-8 debut weekend, finishing first at the box office.
- That is almost three times the $11.4 million opening of Godzilla Minus One in 2023, from 3,254 theaters distributed by GKIDS.
- In Japan, the film sold 590,000 tickets on its November 3 opening day, a record for any live-action release there.
- The sequel is now in theaters, including IMAX, while Minus One can be rented digitally and has been on Netflix in the US since June 2024.
Contents
Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus Zero opened at number one in the United States and Canada. Studio estimates over the weekend of November 6 to 8 put it at $31.6 million, ahead of Warner Bros.’ animated The Cat in the Hat, which made $20.5 million.
The Toho production also posted record numbers at home three days earlier. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the film had grossed about $63 million worldwide by Sunday, on a reported production budget of $13 million to $15 million.
A $31.6 million debut sets a new bar for a Japanese film
The weekend total included $6.7 million from early screenings. Spread across 3,254 venues, it works out to an average of $9,714 per theater, roughly double what Minus One averaged in 2023.
The figure ends a record that stood for 22 years. Zhang Yimou’s martial-arts film Hero opened to $17.8 million in the US in 2004, the previous high for a foreign-language import.
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If every non-English live-action film is counted, US productions included, Rotten Tomatoes ranks Minus Zero second, behind The Passion of the Christ. It is also the biggest opening in the history of GKIDS, the New York distributor best known for releasing Studio Ghibli titles.
Audiences rated it highly. The film earned an A CinemaScore, a sign that word of mouth could help it in the coming weeks.
How Minus Zero compares with earlier Godzilla openings
Hollywood’s MonsterVerse films still lead the franchise at the US box office, but they cost many times more. The table below sets out the North American opening weekends of recent Godzilla films.
| Film | Year | US opening |
|---|---|---|
| Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire | 2024 | $80 million |
| Godzilla vs. Kong | 2021 | $32.2 million |
| Godzilla Minus Zero | 2026 | $31.6 million (estimate) |
| Godzilla Minus One | 2023 | $11.4 million |
| Shin Godzilla | 2016 | $451,293 |
Godzilla vs. Kong opened during the pandemic, when it was also available on HBO Max at no extra cost. Minus Zero landed within $1 million of it with a subtitled film made for a small share of a Hollywood budget.
The gap with Shin Godzilla shows how much has changed. Ten years ago, the Japanese series barely registered in American theaters.
Minus One finished with more than $100 million worldwide and won the Oscar for best visual effects. Those results helped persuade Toho and GKIDS to release the sequel in Japan and North America only three days apart, a first for the Japanese-made series.
In Japan, the best opening day for a live-action film
Minus Zero opened in Japan on Tuesday, November 3, a public holiday and the date fans celebrate as Godzilla Day. Japanese site Kai-You reports a first-day take of ¥910 million from 590,000 tickets, the best opening day for any live-action film released in Japan, domestic or foreign.
For comparison, Minus One made ¥452 million on its first day and ¥1.04 billion over its first three days. The sequel came close to that three-day total in a single day.
The film played on 448 screens across Japan, 65 of them IMAX. It is the first Japanese production certified as « Filmed for IMAX, » and its IMAX debut is the largest worldwide for a Japanese film.
Japanese box office trackers report about ¥2.5 billion over the first six days and 1.61 million tickets sold. Toho says the film could become the first in the series to pass ¥10 billion in Japan, a mark Shin Godzilla’s ¥8.25 billion never reached.
Where to watch Godzilla Minus Zero and its predecessor
Minus Zero is only in theaters for now. GKIDS has it in about 3,250 North American locations, with IMAX and other premium screens in many cities, and no streaming date has been announced.
The 135-minute film is set in 1949 and picks up after the events of Minus One. Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe return to their roles, and Masami Nagasawa and Jun Kunimura join the cast.
Viewers who want to catch up first can find Godzilla Minus One on Netflix, where it arrived in the US on June 1, 2024. It can also be rented or bought on platforms such as Apple TV, Prime Video, YouTube and Fandango at Home.
What the second weekend will show
The weekend of November 13 to 15 will tell whether the film has staying power. Analysts are watching the drop from week one, a typical weak point for fan-driven openings.
Rotten Tomatoes expects Minus Zero to pass Life Is Beautiful’s $57.2 million and become the third-highest-grossing non-English live-action film in North America. Only The Passion of the Christ and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon have topped $100 million in that category.