Entertainment & Culture

Godzilla Minus Zero Sets a GKIDS Box Office Record With $31.6 Million Opening

Takashi Yamazaki’s sequel leads the North American box office and gives distributor GKIDS its biggest opening yet, according to Sunday estimates.

Beaux Media Editorial · Nov 8, 2026 · 3 min read

Godzilla has stomped into the record books before, but rarely with this kind of speed. Godzilla Minus Zero, Takashi Yamazaki’s sequel to the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One, opened in 3,254 North American cinemas on Friday and leads the weekend box office with an estimated $31.6 million, according to Sunday estimates reported by TheWrap.

The $31.6 million estimated weekend is a record for distributor GKIDS and, according to TheWrap, the second-largest North American debut for a live-action non-English-language film behind The Passion of the Christ. The figure follows a $14.5 million opening day including Thursday previews and remains a Sunday estimate, subject to final Monday actuals. For GKIDS, it comfortably passes the distributor’s previous record opening, the $13 million debut of Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron in 2023.

Audiences are not just turning up; they are cheering. The film earned an A grade from CinemaScore, matching its predecessor, and holds a 90 per cent critics’ approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Nearly three quarters of its weekend gross is coming from Imax and other premium large-format screens, an unusually high share that suggests viewers want the biggest possible version of the spectacle.

The achievement is all the more striking for how quietly it arrived. According to Deadline, the North American marketing spend was under $10 million, with no television advertising at all. Word of mouth, fan communities and the affection built by Godzilla Minus One, which won the Academy Award for visual effects on a modest budget, appear to have done the rest.

Yamazaki returns as writer, director and visual effects lead, with Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe reprising their roles. The story finds postwar Japan facing the three-headed King Ghidorah, and the uncertain hope of an alliance with Godzilla himself.

The release was timed to Godzilla Day on 3 November, marking 72 years since Toho first brought the monster to cinemas in 1954. According to TheWrap, the film has also made an estimated $31 million overseas, including $17 million in Japan.

For a character older than most of his audience, Godzilla’s pulling power looks remarkably undimmed.

Updated Nov. 8, 2026: An earlier version misstated the record category. The opening is a GKIDS distributor record, not the largest ever for a live-action non-English-language film.