Godzilla Minus Zero roars to a record $31.6 million box office debut

Godzilla Minus Zero opened to $31.6 million in North America over the Nov. 6-8 weekend, beating The Cat in the Hat and setting a record for a live-action foreign-language film, Variety reported.

The Cat in the Hat finished second with $20.5 million from 4,003 theaters, according to Box Office Mojo. Godzilla Minus Zero played in 3,254 locations and still outsold its family-friendly rival by more than $11 million.

The debut is the largest ever for a live-action foreign-language film in North America, breaking a record that had stood since 2002, when China’s martial-arts epic Hero opened to $17.8 million. Variety reported that the result nearly doubles that mark. The film is in Japanese, rated R, and was distributed by Gkids, a specialist label.

Premium large-format screens carried the film. Imax alone contributed $12.7 million, or 40% of domestic grosses, Variety reported. Premium large formats including Dolby accounted for 74% of ticket sales. By comparison, The Odyssey, one of the year’s biggest releases, drew 53% of its opening weekend from premium formats.

Reviews and audience scores were strong. The film holds a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and earned an A grade from CinemaScore exit polls, Variety reported. Owen Gleiberman, reviewing the film for Variety after its New York Film Festival premiere, called it a grander follow-up to Godzilla Minus One and praised director Takashi Yamazaki’s “awesome sense of monster action paintings in motion.”

The film builds on Godzilla Minus One, the 2023 surprise hit that opened to $11.4 million and ran to $57 million in North America and $113 million globally. That film won the Academy Award for visual effects, making Yamazaki the first director to receive that trophy since Stanley Kubrick for 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968, Variety reported.

Yamazaki told Variety the Oscar was “just such a shock to us.” He said he “never thought that would happen in a million years because here we are on the other side of the planet making movies for our domestic market.” The win, he said, opened “doors, options and possibilities” for his career.

Yamazaki wrote, directed and supervised the visual effects for the sequel, which is set in 1949 and pits Godzilla against King Ghidorah. It is the 38th film in the Godzilla franchise and the 34th produced by Toho, and the first Japanese feature ever shot for Imax. Yamazaki told Variety that the title refers to “this idea of neutrality” and characters “trying to claw their way back to what feels neutral” after tragedy.

The sequel continues the story of Kōichi Shikishima, a former kamikaze pilot, and his family, Variety’s review noted. Godzilla stands 50.1 meters tall in the film. One key shot, in which the monster rises from the ocean to chase a seaplane, required 2 billion water particle visual effects elements to render.

Overseas, Godzilla Minus Zero earned $31.4 million from 77 markets for a global start of $63 million, Variety reported. Imax chief Rich Gelfond said the company was “proud to call this the first Filmed For Imax release from Japan.” The film set a record for the highest global Imax opening ever for a Japanese title.

Chance Huskey, VP of distribution for Gkids, said the company was “so happy to see audiences embrace Godzilla Minus Zero at an unprecedented scale for an international film.” The movie was produced by Toho and distributed in the U.S. by Gkids. David A. Gross, who publishes the box office newsletter FranchiseRe, said the opening “takes the Japanese production to a new level.”

The Cat in the Hat fared worse. The Warner Bros. animated film earned an A from CinemaScore but just 45% on Rotten Tomatoes. Bill Hader voices the title character. Overseas it collected $10 million from 60 markets for a global start of $30.5 million. The film cost $92 million to make.

Unless the film rebounds, it will rank as another miss for Warner Bros., which has endured a brutal year with flops including Digger, The Bride! and Supergirl. It is the second film adaptation of the Dr. Seuss book, after the 2003 live-action version starring Mike Myers, which opened to $38 million and finished with $134 million on a budget above $100 million. Universal’s The Grinch opened to $67 million in 2018 and The Lorax to $70 million in 2012.

Gross called the opening “soft” but noted that “family animation does extremely well in ancillary windows, earning more in digital sales and rental, streaming and TV licensing than in theatrical.” He said that is where the film should recover its costs.

The overall weekend reached $114 million across all films, up 86% from the same frame a year ago, when Predator: Badlands was No. 1, Variety reported. Year-to-date revenues hit $8.6 billion, 20% above the same point in 2025. Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Rentrak, called it “another encouraging sign as we head toward the all-important holiday movie season.”

Two other films debuted wide. Drummer Boy, a Christian musical from Angel Studios, finished third with $9.3 million. Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, an Indian epic distributed by Sony, earned $8.6 million over the weekend and $12.1 million over its first four days, the widest North American release ever for an Indian film. Globally, Ramayana opened to $55.7 million, led by $32 million in India, and set a Diwali holiday opening record for an Indian production.

A24’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything held fourth place with $8.8 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $79.8 million. Searchlight’s Wild Horse Nine, a dark comedy starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell and directed by Martin McDonagh, opened at No. 8 with $6 million from 1,100 theaters.

What I think

A subtitled, R-rated Japanese film just outopened a $92 million American family cartoon that was playing in 749 more theaters. The Cat in the Hat had brand recognition and no competition for families with young children. It still lost by more than half.

I think the gap is the experience. Godzilla Minus Zero sold 74% of its tickets on premium large-format screens. People paid extra to watch a monster destroy a city on the biggest available canvas. The Cat in the Hat is a cartoon parents can stream at home in a few months. One is an event. The other is a babysitter.

Warner Bros. has stacked enough misses this year that the pattern is the story, not any single film. But the broader lesson is that audiences will show up for something they cannot get on a phone, in a language they do not speak, with subtitles they have to read. Yamazaki built a movie that demands a theater. The box office responded.