Godzilla Minus Zero heads for a record US$32 million opening, nearly triple what won Minus One its Oscar

A Japanese-language monster film with subtitles is set to beat every Hollywood release at the North American box office this weekend.

Godzilla Minus Zero earned about US$14.5 million on Friday across 3,254 cinemas in the United States and Canada, including US$6.7 million from Thursday night previews. Saturday’s industry estimates put the film on course for about US$32 million by the end of Sunday.

That would make it the biggest opening on record for a live-action film not in English in North America. It would also be the biggest launch in the history of GKIDS, the specialist distributor releasing the Toho film in the US.

How big is US$32 million for a film like this?

For a subtitled film, it is unheard of. The previous record for a live-action foreign-language opening belonged to Zhang Yimou’s Hero, which took US$17.8 million when it reached American cinemas in 2004. Minus Zero is on track to nearly double that.

It is also close to the US$32.2 million that Hollywood’s own Godzilla vs. Kong opened with in 2021, a film that had a far bigger budget and an English-speaking cast, although it was released during the pandemic and streamed at the same time on HBO Max. The 2019 Hollywood film Godzilla: King of the Monsters opened with US$47.7 million.

Why is this sequel doing so much better than Minus One?

Minus One opened with US$11.4 million in North America in December 2023 and became a word-of-mouth hit. Months later it won the Academy Award for best visual effects, the first Godzilla film ever to win an Oscar, achieved on a budget a fraction of the size of a typical Hollywood blockbuster.

That win turned Yamazaki, who again writes, directs and supervises the visual effects, into a name audiences now seek out. Minus Zero is also playing on IMAX and other premium large-format screens, where tickets cost more and opening-weekend fans tend to cluster.

What else is in cinemas this weekend?

The animated The Cat in the Hat, which critics have panned, was tracking for an opening of about US$20 million, placing it a distant second. Behind it, projections had the colonial-era drama Drummer Boy and the documentary You Can See Everything each on about US$9 million.

When can Australians see it?

Now. Godzilla Minus Zero opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday 5 November, and it is screening only in cinemas, with no streaming date announced. It arrived in Japan on 3 November, the anniversary of the original Godzilla’s release there in 1954, and opened in the US and the UK on Friday 6 November.

Are the figures final?

No. Weekend box office figures released on Saturdays and Sundays are studio and industry estimates. They can move once Sunday’s sessions are counted, especially for films that draw large evening crowds. Final figures for the weekend are released on Monday, US time.