Japanese box office records have already been shattered by Godzilla Minus One, which is currently in Japanese theaters.
North American kaiju fans will have to wait until December to view TOHO's latest take on the giant green lizard. The film will be shown in Japanese, with English-subtitles.
A brand-new international poster for the movie has been unveiled to promote its release.
At the Japanese box office, Godzilla Minus One opened as the top film, earning ¥1.04 billion ($7.8 million) from 648,600 tickets sold in its first three days of release. With US$1.2 million from 49 IMAX theaters throughout the course of its first weekend, the movie had the biggest opening for a Japanese live-action movie in the format.
Recently Gareth Edwards, director of Legendary Pictures' Godzilla (2014) spoke about Minus One as part of Japan's Godzilla Fest 2023. He had nothing but high praise for the film.
"There were a lot of things that I felt were very new for Godzilla [in Godzilla Minus One], and I felt jealous the whole time I was watching the movie. This is what a Godzilla movie should be...[Godzilla Minus One] must be mentioned as a candidate for the best Godzilla movie of all time."
That's high praise given the fact that Edwards' movie is looked upon in a favorable light.
Godzilla Minus One is directed and written by Takashi Yamazaki (Lupin III The First, Dragon Quest: Your Story). It stars Ryunosuke Kamiki as Kōichi Shikishima, Minami Hamabe as Noriko Ōishi, Yuki Yamada as Shirō Mizushima, Munetaka Aoki as Sōsaku Tachibana, and Hidetaka Yoshioka as Kenji Noda.
In a previous interview, Yamazaki revealed that he was partially motivated by Shin Godzilla to tackle the newest take on kaiju king.
"I had been approached several times but turned it down until my team’s technology was capable of expressing the Godzilla I had envisioned. After seeing Shin Godzilla, my motivation increased, and my technology evolved considerably. I was once again formally approached and decided to give it a try."
The official synopsis for the film reads, "In the final days of World War II, a small group of Japanese soldiers encounter a dinosaur-like creature on a remote island and are massacred—leaving only two survivors. Two years later, the creature, now many times its original size and capable of shooting thermonuclear breath, appears and begins attacking ships off the coast of Japan—moving ever closer to the still-devastated, post-war Japanese mainland."
Godzilla Minus One will begin a limited theatrical run in North America on December 1. Special fan showings will be available on November 29.