'Godzilla Minus Zero' Earned $31.6 Million and Broke a Record

Godzilla Minus One earned $57 million in North America in 2023. Its sequel nearly matched that number in three days. "Godzilla Minus Zero" opened to $31.6 million, nearly tripling its predecessor's domestic debut and destroying the record for the biggest North American opening for a live-action foreign-language film.

The film opened in more than 3,200 theaters, roughly 1,000 more than "Minus One." It premiered at the New York Film Festival. It became the first Japanese production filmed for IMAX, and more than 70 percent of its opening grosses came from premium large-format auditoriums — IMAX, 4DX, D-Box and others — an unusual figure for a subtitled film.

Dave Jesteadt has led the film's American distributor, GKIDS, as president since 2017. He joined the company as a day-one employee after its founding in 2008, when the label built its reputation on foreign-language animation, most notably the North American rights to the Studio Ghibli library. Toho, the Japanese studio behind Godzilla, acquired GKIDS in 2025, after the companies had first worked in parallel in 2023, when GKIDS released Hayao Miyazaki's "The Boy and the Heron" a week after Toho's L.A. office opened "Godzilla Minus One."

"Anecdotally, so many people I know are like, 'I took my dad this movie and he doesn't go to any subtitle movies,'" Jesteadt told IndieWire. "Godzilla brings us together. If we're spreading the gospel of foreign cinema, and Godzilla is a vehicle to get people to engage with great films and deep themes, then I'm all for it."

How did GKIDS build the opening?

After joining the Toho Group in October 2024, GKIDS absorbed the team that had handled "Minus One." The company re-released "Shin Godzilla" in 2025 as a test for bringing modern Japanese Godzilla films back to American theaters. Planning for "Minus Zero" then began in earnest.

Jesteadt declined to give a specific marketing budget but described the campaign as efficient and direct. Toho International owns and operates Godzilla.com and oversees merchandise licensing, giving the company direct communication with the American Godzilla fan. The broader goal, he said, was to reach audiences who had never engaged with Japanese Godzilla films, leading with quality and festival credentials.

"We're leading with the quality of the film, making people feel that this is a very safe choice — not just if you like spectacle, but that this is going to be one of the best films of the year," Jesteadt said. The New York Film Festival premiere, he added, was "a really important way to demonstrate confidence" in a franchise he described as moving toward more realistic, human-centered stories under director Takashi Yamazaki.

What did IMAX change for a subtitled film?

IMAX told GKIDS that "Minus Zero" posted the highest-indexed opening-weekend gross on IMAX screens in the United States. Godzilla Day on November 3 brought IMAX early-access screenings globally. Jesteadt called the premium-format access a privilege normally reserved for the biggest mainstream titles, and noted that the film was mastered so viewers "won't have a bad experience in any house."

The run in premium formats is time-sensitive. "We're up against the biggest studios in the world," Jesteadt said, acknowledging the Thanksgiving competition from titles such as "The Odyssey." He encouraged audiences to see the film soon, often, and in regular theaters as well.

What does this change for foreign-language cinema?

Jesteadt pointed to two forces. First, quality: "Minus One" won the Oscar for visual effects. Second, demographics. "Younger generations are much more open to subtitled and foreign cinema than they would have been 10 or 20 years ago," he said. Twenty years ago, GKIDS needed dubs to sell subtitled animation; now, he said, it does not.

He rejected the idea that Japanese productions are now made with a global audience in mind. The films remain intrinsically Japanese, rooted in a post-war moment that he called "incredibly contemporary" in its preoccupations. Instead, social media has placed the director and audience in direct conversation, with auto-translation letting Japanese, American, Spanish and European fans debate the films in real time.

"By creating something that feel like it's created for a specific audience, ironically, you end up making it feel more universal, just because it feels more lived in," Jesteadt said. "Godzilla Minus Zero" is now in theaters.