Godzilla has returned to his rightful place at the top. Director Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus Zero opened around the world over the weekend and it went better than anyone expected. The filmmaker’s follow-up to the award winning Godzilla Minus One not only topped the charts globally, but broke impressive records along the way.
See also: 7 Giant Monster Movies To Watch After Godzilla Minus Zero
Godzilla Minus Zero easily took the number one spot in North America over the weekend, bringing in an estimated $31.6 million. That was more than enough to outdo the other big newcomer, the animated The Cat in the Hat from Warner Bros., which debuted to $20.5 million. Normally, the family-friendly animated movie would easily prevail over the brutal, R-rated, Japanese monster movie. But this is no ordinary monster movie.
The sequel also pulled in $31.4 million internationally giving it a $63 million global start. For context, Minus One opened to $11.4 million in the U.S. en route to $114 million worldwide in 2023/2024. That was enormously impressive for a Japanese-language Godzilla movie but it now looks like that high bar is going to be shattered by Yamazaki’s latest.
In terms of records? Take a deep breath. It posted the highest opening-day gross for any live-action Japanese movie in history. It also represents the biggest opening weekend for a live-action foreign-language movie in North America. Godzilla Minus Zero is also now the biggest opening ever for American distributor GKIDS, as well as the biggest global opening for a Japanese movie in IMAX. Not bad for a 72-year-old franchise.
The sequel picks up two years after the events of Minus One and Japan has faced agonizing struggles to achieve recovery and finally reclaim daily life. Just as humanity managed to cling to a hard-won peace, a new threat strikes, crushing hope in an instant. Spoiler alert: that new threat is one of Godzilla’s most notorious foes. Let them fight, as it were.
This impressive, record-breaking opening is very much just the beginning. Godzilla Minus Zero has been met with rave reviews from critics, with audiences responding equally as well. That should help give it legs in the weeks/months to come. If it winds up in the Oscar conversation and/or Toho decides to do a black and white release as they did with Minus One? The ceiling could be very high.
Looking ahead, this weekend brings with it Johnny Depp’s Ebenezer as well as Maika Monroe’s Victorian Psycho. The rest of November is pretty light on big horror movies hitting theaters but there are some biggies left before 2026 wraps it up, including Robert Eggers’ Werwulf.
Godzilla Minus Zero is in theaters now.
