ENTERTAINMENT
Takashi Yamazaki’s Japanese sequel beat a crowded opening weekend and set a new benchmark for a live-action foreign-language release in the United States and Canada
Thunder Bay – International News Service – Godzilla Minus Zero opened at No. 1 in North America with an estimated $31.6 million from Friday through Sunday, giving the Japanese production a record launch for a live-action foreign-language film in the market.
The sequel, written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, played in 3,254 locations and finished comfortably ahead of Warner Bros. Animation’s The Cat in the Hat, which opened with $20.5 million. Angel Studios’ Drummer Boy placed third with $9.3 million, while Ramayana: Rise of a Legend earned $8.7 million in fifth place.
The record comes with a useful footnote. 2004’s The Passion of the Christ opened to $83.8 million, although the largely Aramaic-language film is generally treated separately in industry comparisons. Among releases conventionally classified as foreign-language live-action films, Godzilla Minus Zero passed the previous $17.9 million opening mark set by Hero in 2004.
Large-format screens did plenty of the heavy lifting. Boxoffice Pro reported that IMAX accounted for $12.7 million, or about 40 per cent, of the domestic opening. The film received an IMAX-only start before its wider North American release on November 6.
The result is also a major jump from Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One. That film opened to $11.4 million in North America and went on to earn $57.1 million in the market, according to Boxoffice Pro. It later won the Academy Award for visual effects, the first Asian film to take that prize.
Toho produced Godzilla Minus Zero, while GKIDS handled the North American release. The companies opened the film in Japan on November 3 and across North America three days later, part of the first near-simultaneous global rollout for a Japanese Godzilla movie. For moviegoers, the weekend’s message was not subtle: subtitles did not keep the big lizard from filling big screens.
