Godzilla Minus Zero has arrived in theaters, and Exhibitor Relations Co. (via SFFGazette.com) has confirmed that the movie earned $6.7 million from Thursday preview screenings. However, that number does include earnings from fan events on Tuesday ("Godzilla Day") and Wednesday.
The sequel made $2 million from those, so the true Thursday number is $4 million. Still, this is a strong start for the R-rated movie that cost a reported $15 million to $20 million to produce.
In 2023, Godzilla Minus One made $2.1 million from Wednesday and Thursday screenings ahead of an $11.4 million opening weekend. In contrast, the sequel is expected to debut with upwards of $30 million.
Things aren't looking quite so positive for Warner Bros. Animation's The Cat in the Hat, which only made $1 million from previews. Still, with Disney Animation's Hexed not arriving until Thanksgiving, there's plenty of time for the movie to find its intended family audience.
Speaking of which, box office analysts are debating whether the decision to make this the first R-rated Godzilla movie could hold Minus Zero back from being an even bigger hit. There's no swearing or nudity, but there are some very brutal scenes showing the aftermath of Godzilla and King Ghidorah's rampage.
During a recent interview with IndieWire, Godzilla Minus Zero director Takashi Yamazaki addressed the sequel's surprise R-rating.
"During pre-production and even production, we had conversations with our team that, yes, extreme visual representation or going about the visual expression of the film in the way we were thinking could risk our rating," the filmmaker explained. "But I felt, especially for the themes that we were exploring and tackling, to properly communicate that, we could not run away from an R rating."
"So yes, of course I’d love for kids and families to be able to see this film, but when I weighed everything on a scale between going for the rating and possibly editing or censoring what the message was supposed to be, going all in on conveying this vision won out."
"I could see other films benefiting from more abstracted visual expression or at least visuals that are a bit more sugarcoated," Yamazaki continued, "but I did not think that was the case for this film. It was important to show it all in a direct manner."
War reduced Japan to zero, and Godzilla plunged it into minus. In Godzilla Minus Zero, two years have passed since then, and the country has faced agonizing struggles to achieve recovery and finally reclaim its daily life. Just as humanity managed to cling to a hard-won peace, a new threat strikes, crushing hope in an instant. There is no third time. Everything ends here.
Directed by Takashi Yamazaki, the movie stars Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Jun Kunimura, Miou Tanaka, Sakura Ando, Masami Nagasawa, Min Tanaka, and Hidetaka Yoshioka.
Shot entirely in Japan as the first-ever Japanese production filmed for IMAX, Godzilla Minus Zero was shot with high-definition digital cameras certified by IMAX, and optimised in sound and imagery unique to IMAX screens. The globally beloved monster returns to movie theater screens, reaching greater and more terrifying heights, making Godzilla Minus Zero a true cinematic event not to be missed.
Godzilla Minus Zero arrives in theaters on November 6.