Godzilla Minus Zero Sets Japan's Opening-Day Record and Storms U.S. Previews

Godzilla did not ease into his second act. Godzilla Minus Zero, Takashi Yamazaki’s sequel to the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One, opened in Japan on Tuesday with the biggest first day any live-action film has ever had there — then crossed the Pacific and took $6.7 million in U.S. previews, a record for its distributor, on its way to an opening weekend expected to more than double the first film’s.

The record in Japan

The home crowd went first. Minus Zero opened in Japan on November 3 — Godzilla Day, the anniversary of the original film’s 1954 release — and grossed ¥910 million (about $5.7 million) in a single day, on more than 590,000 admissions. Toho and GKIDS announced it as the highest opening-day gross ever for a live-action film in Japan, domestic and foreign releases combined, passing the mark Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets had held at ¥840 million. It was also 201 percent of what Minus One did on its own opening day — and the sequel kept moving, reaching ¥1.38 billion (about $8.7 million) in Japan through three days.

The American start

The U.S. number landed Friday morning: $6.7 million in previews, per Variety — a figure that bundles Tuesday’s Godzilla Day fan screenings with the Wednesday and Thursday shows. Deadline’s earlier read had it at $6 million; Variety’s is the updated count, and either way it rewrites the distributor’s book. The previews are a record for GKIDS, whose previous best was The Boy and the Heron’s $2.39 million, and they roughly triple the $2.1 million Minus One collected in previews three years ago.

What that buys, if the tracking holds: an opening weekend projected at $25–30 million or better from 3,250 theaters, with forecasters expecting roughly $30 million and the top spot for the weekend. That is a projection, not a result — Sunday’s actuals will settle it — but even the low end of the range more than doubles Minus One’s $11.4 million opening, which it managed from about 2,300 theaters.

The bar the first film set

That first film is the reason any of this is news. Godzilla Minus One opened small in December 2023 and refused to leave: it legged out to $57.1 million in North America — the biggest run ever for a live-action Japanese film there — and $113.9 million worldwide, then won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, the first Oscar any Godzilla film had taken. A subtitled monster movie made for a fraction of a Hollywood budget became the safest word-of-mouth bet in theaters. Minus Zero arrives with that reputation doing the marketing.

Built bigger

Yamazaki — again writer, director and visual-effects lead — also shot this one larger. Minus Zero is the first Japanese production ever Filmed for IMAX, made with IMAX-certified cameras and sequences presented in the format’s full 1.43:1 frame. The story picks up in 1949, two years after Minus One, with Godzilla returning and a new monster arriving with him. Toho produces; GKIDS, which Toho acquired in 2024, handles North America.

The weekend’s remaining question is not whether the sequel opens at No. 1 — the previews settled that — but how far past $30 million the walk-up business pushes it, and whether it holds the way its predecessor did. Minus One made its name by staying. Minus Zero has already made its name by arriving.