The King of the Monsters has made his return to the box office, this time in glorious 4K Ultra HD. The good folks at GKIDS scooped up the North American rights to 2016’s Shin Godzilla earlier this year and they’ve made good use of it, bringing a new 4K release of director Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi’s film to theaters once again.
See also: IDW’S GODZILLA Is A Bold New Start For The King Of The Monsters
The 4K re-release of Shin Godzilla pulled in $1.6 million over the weekend, playing on 1,290 screens across the country. In total, the re-release has made $2.4 million. It narrowly missed out on the top ten but that’s largely because Weapons was still on a tear in its second weekend, topping the charts again with a $25 million second weekend. Still, even as Nobody 2 made its way to theaters, the Godzilla faithful showed up.
This now brings the film’s running total in the U.S. to $4.3 million. Despite being one of the best Godzilla movies ever made, Shin Godzilla didn’t even clear $2 million domestically in its original release. It was a different time though. The King is having a bit of a moment. 2023’s Godzilla Minus One made well over $100 million worldwide, including a very impressive $57 million in North America. That’s why Toho is making a sequel with a bigger budget as we speak.
What’s interesting is that both of these movies are held up as some of the very best entries in the franchise from its 71 year history, right alongside the 1954 original that stated it all. Yet, for some reason, Shin Godzilla just couldn’t catch on with Americans nine years ago. This re-release is a great opportunity for people to catch up with it. For those who haven’t seen it, the synopsis reads as follows…
“Something has surfaced in Tokyo Bay. As the Prime Minister of Japan pleads with the public to remain calm, a horrific creature of tremendous size makes landfall in the city, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Then it evolves. The government assembles a motley task force to combat the monster when an envoy from the US Department of State delivers a folder of classified documents. On its cover is written: ‘GODZILLA.’”
GKIDS is also bringing a new Shin Godzilla 4K release to shelves later this year, so people will have the chance to watch it at home in Ultra HD sooner rather than later. Elsewhere, the next MonsterVerse movie is also in development titled Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, serving as a sequel to last year’s The New Empire. Plus, Apple TV+ has another season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters in the can.
Shin Godzilla is in theaters now. For more, get the lowdown on this year’s Fantastic Fest lineup.
