‘Godzilla Minus One’ Destroys ‘Shin Godzilla’s Global Box Office Record

Already one of the biggest live-action foreign-language films of all time in North America, Toho’s word-of-mouth hit, Godzilla Minus One, passed a new milestone at the global box office on Thursday. The 37th overall film in the long-running Godzilla franchise, and the fifth in the series’ Reiwa era, Godzilla Minus One has now overtaken the lifetime global haul of its predecessor, 2016’s Shin Godzilla.

With $42 million domestically and $35 million from overseas territories, Godzilla Minus One has grossed $78 million worldwide. Shin Godzilla, on the other hand, ended its global run with $77.9 million, with less than $2 million of that total coming from domestic theaters. Shin Godzilla grossed $76 million from overseas markets, which means that there’s potential for Godzilla Minus One to show further growth, and perhaps even pass the coveted $100 million mark globally.

The film debuted in its home country, Japan, in November, and grossed $33 million there prior to its stateside debut. Godzilla Minus One made history at the domestic box office in early December, when it delivered the biggest opening weekend haul ever for a live-action Japanese film. The movie retained spots in the top five for three weeks, before dropping to number nine in the crowded Christmas marketplace. Godzilla Minus One was initially expected to play for a week, but the positive word-of-mouth encouraged Toho to expand its theater-count and extend its domestic run.

Can the Box Office Success Translate to Awards Attention?

More recently, Godzilla Minus One overtook Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 classic, Pan’s Labyrinth, to become the sixth-biggest live-action foreign-language release of all time at the domestic box office. Set in postwar Japan, Godzilla Minus One harks back to the franchise’s origins — Godzilla debuted in 1954 as an allegory for the nuclear weapons that ended World War II. The franchise has since expanded exponentially, with a parallel American series unfolding as we speak. Dubbed the MonsterVerse, the series recently branched out to streaming, with the well-reviewed Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and will continue next year with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

Unlike the MonsterVerse films, most of which cost between $150 million and $200 million, Godzilla Minus One was produced on a reported budget of $15 million. It was also significantly better reviewed than every other Godzilla film, and, in fact, most big-budget Hollywood tent-poles. Directed by Takashi Yamazaki, the film currently sits at a “certified fresh” 98% score on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, and is expected to be a strong contender in the awards season. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.