Godzilla is making history again! Godzilla Minus Zero, the sequel to Godzilla Minus One, earned $31.6 million in its first weekend in North America and topped the box office, ahead of The Cat in the Hat. That’s the biggest US opening ever for a live-action foreign film.
And it’s not the only record. In Japan, it also had the biggest opening day ever for a live-action film, Japanese or foreign.
The Godzilla Minus Zero Trailer
Here’s the official IMAX trailer, which shows the film in the 1.43:1 aspect ratio, the tallest IMAX format:
Godzilla Minus Zero’s North American Records
The film hit 3,254 North American theaters and blew past its distributors’ expectations, which were in the mid-$20 million range. To put it in perspective, that’s nearly triple what Godzilla Minus One made in its first weekend back in December 2023, at $11.4 million.
The most striking part is how people watched it. A record 74% of the gross came from premium large format screens, and 40%, about $12 million, came from IMAX alone. That makes sense: it’s the first Japanese production ever filmed for IMAX.
Here are the records it broke:
- Biggest US opening for a live-action foreign film. The previous record belonged to Hero, with $17.8 million in 2004.
- Biggest opening in GKIDS history, its distributor, beating The Boy and the Heron‘s $13 million in 2023.
- Record share from premium screens for a North American opening.
It still doesn’t top every foreign film, though. That record still belongs to the anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, which opened with $70.6 million in September 2025.
A Record in Japan Too
The film opened in Japan on Tuesday, November 3, Godzilla Day, which marks the anniversary of the original 1954 film. On opening day alone, it sold 590,000 tickets and earned 910 million yen, about $5.75 million, the best first day ever for a live-action film in Japan. By the end of its first weekend, it had made about $17 million there.
In total, it has already passed $63 million worldwide, and according to Deadline it was the highest-grossing film on the planet last weekend. Not bad for a production with a budget in the mid-teens of millions, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
What Is Godzilla Minus Zero About?
The story is set in 1949, two years after the events of Godzilla Minus One. Japan, still recovering from the war, comes under attack from Ghidorah, the three-headed monster, while the threat of Godzilla’s return looms.
Ryūnosuke Kamiki returns as Koichi Shikishima, Minami Hamabe as Noriko Ōishi and Hidetaka Yoshioka as Noda, along with Yūki Yamada, Kuranosuke Sasaki and Sakura Andō. The big new addition is Min Tanaka, known for 47 Ronin and the live-action Rurouni Kenshin films, who plays biologist Kanji Murakami.
Takashi Yamazaki returns as director, writer and VFX supervisor, with visual effects by Shirogumi and music by Naoki Satō. It’s practically the same team that won the first film the Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 2024, the first Japanese film ever to win it.
What Critics and Audiences Are Saying
The reception has been excellent. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 90% critics score and 96% from audiences, and it earned an A CinemaScore. David Rooney, chief film critic at The Hollywood Reporter, called it a “thrilling jolt of marauding monster action.”
Yamazaki himself thanked fans for the response:
“I grew up in awe of Hollywood movies and have spent my career chasing after them, so seeing our Godzilla welcomed with so much warmth and excitement by people all over the world, and watched by so many of you, honestly feels like a dream.”
Where to Watch Godzilla Minus Zero
The film opened in North America on November 6, marking the first time a Japanese Godzilla film reached Japan and North America in the same week. It also opened that week in Latin America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, so it should already be in theaters near you. Toho will announce more international dates later.
If you haven’t seen the first one yet, Godzilla Minus One is streaming on Netflix, in both color and its black-and-white version, Minus One/Minus Color. And Yamazaki is already working on his first English-language film, Grandgear, which Sony moved up to January 14, 2028.
So tell me, have you seen Godzilla Minus Zero yet, or are you planning to catch it in IMAX? Let me know in the comments, and follow me as josegeek on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok for more movie news.
Sources: Anime News Network and The Hollywood Reporter.
