Godzilla Minus One Just Passed A Major Box Office Milestone
Nearly two months into its box office run, "Godzilla Minus One" continues to make noise. Toho's surprise hit entry in the long-running franchise is riding high, having recently secured a historic Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects, with the black and white "Minus Color" edition of the film hitting theaters over the weekend. The combination of events was enough to give the film a healthy boost on what figures to be its final weekend in theaters in the U.S. But it's going out with a bang and some impressive milestones under its belt.
Takashi Yamazaki's widely-acclaimed "Godzilla" film pulled in $2.7 million in its most recent weekend (in large part thanks to the black and white version), putting it back in the top 10 on the charts, per The Numbers. That also finally pushed it over the $100 million mark at the global box office. It has now earned $55 million domestically to go with $47.6 million internationally, giving it a grand total of $102.6 million. Toho will finally be pulling the film from theaters on February 1. Considering that it was originally only supposed to have a one-week engagement, lasting two whole months is nothing shy of remarkable. To that end, it's worth remembering that 2016's "Shin Godzilla" (which was also very well-liked) made just $1.9 million during its entire run in the U.S.
The domestic figure for this movie is particularly important because that now puts "Godzilla Minus One" amongst the highest-grossing non-English-language films ever domestically. It's managed to surpass 2002's "Hero" ($53.7 million) and 2019's Best Picture-winner "Parasite" ($53.4 million) — not adjusting for inflation — and is below only 1997's "Life Is Beautiful" ($57.6 million) and 2000's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" ($129 million). That is some incredibly good company to be in, to put it lightly.
Go, go Godzilla!
"Minus One" picks up in the mid-40s in the aftermath of World War II. Just as the nation's people are trying to put things back together, Godzilla emerges to once again plunge the country into chaos. The film has been hailed as one of the best movies in the franchise, which is impressive given that the original 1954 kaiju classic celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. Not too many properties get to take such a resounding victory lap seven decades in. It's rare air to be certain.
The other truly wild thing is the fact that the reported budget for this film is $15 million or less. Granted, much of that has to do with the way employees are treated in Japan, which differs greatly from how those things are handled in the U.S. Even so, it means Toho is going to make a lot of money on the film, which increases the chances of a sequel — or some sort of continuation — happening. We also have "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" arriving later this year, but more homegrown "Godzilla" films at Toho feel inevitable now.
More than anything, it's worth taking a moment to revel in just how unlikely this movie's success seemed even just a handful of months ago. No Japanese "Godzilla" film had ever broken through like this in North America, yet word of mouth and genuine buzz pushed this film to record heights. It also came at a time when the box office needed it badly; the last chunk of 2023 saw several high-profile disappointments, and the first chunk of 2024 has been devoid of major releases. Godzilla may be Tokyo's biggest enemy, but he proved to be the hero that movie theaters needed.
"Godzilla Minus One" is in theaters now.