‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Lands Franchise’s First R Rating

Takashi Yamazaki’s “Godzilla Minus Zero” earned the first R rating in the 72-year history of the Godzilla franchise — and its director says he would not have it any other way.

The Motion Picture Association rated the film R for “violent content/bloody images.” Under MPA guidelines, viewers under 17 cannot attend an R-rated film without a parent or guardian, a restriction that has traditionally made the rating a commercial deterrent for studios releasing big-budget, four-quadrant films. Yamazaki, returning to helm the sequel after 2023’s “Godzilla Minus One” became a hit, called securing the rating “essential to the film.”

“Logically, as a studio — and even as a director — you want as many people from the general public to be able to see your film,” Yamazaki told Variety at the film’s world premiere Saturday afternoon at Alice Tully Hall, part of the New York Film Festival. “So, an R-rating might seem like a barrier to entry, and conversations about, ‘Hey, could we have not gotten this down to PG-13?’ of course are going to happen. In spite of that, though, there were certain scenes that, for me as a director, were so essential to the film. Censoring it or cutting it was just not an option for me.”

The premiere drew multiple rounds of mid-screening applause as the crowd responded to the kaiju mayhem on screen. The press had already published rave first reactions earlier in the day. Yamazaki took the stage to thunderous applause both before and after the screening, and he asked the audience not to spoil the sequel’s surprises online.

“You are the first to see this film,” the filmmaker said. “There are a lot of ‘Godzilla’ fans around the world, so let’s work together and do not do any spoilers. No spoilers, please! I am trusting all of you guys.”

Yamazaki also told the audience he never intended to make a sequel to “Godzilla Minus One.” Executives at Toho, the Japanese studio behind the franchise, began asking him about a follow-up as soon as they saw the first cut of “Minus One” — a prospect that made Yamazaki instantly nervous. Only after the film opened in theaters and won over audiences worldwide did he consider a sequel viable. He joked on stage: “Toho executives are here now. Hopefully all your reactions tonight don’t have them wanting a third movie.”

The director argued that the R rating no longer carries the stigma it once did. “I think the R-rating, at one point, carried almost a negative connotation,” Yamazaki said. “In more modern films, it actually creates a sort of expectation and excitement of, ‘Okay, well, they’re not censoring anything. The director and the cast’s voice is there, as is.’”

The box-office record bears him out. The stigma around R-rated tentpoles has faded over the past decade, starting with the blockbuster success of 2016’s “Deadpool” ($782 million). In 2019, “Joker” ($1.07 billion) became the first R-rated film to cross the $1 billion threshold. That record fell to 2024’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” ($1.33 billion) and then to 2026’s “The Odyssey” ($1.72 billion), which currently ranks as the 17th highest-grossing film of all time worldwide.

“So it is very encouraging to see other films who have preceded us that have already found a lot of success with the R-rating at the box office,” Yamazaki said. “Hopefully, we can continue that trend with ‘Godzilla Minus Zero.’”

New York Film Festival director Dennis Lim acknowledged from the stage that a Godzilla movie might not be an obvious fit for a major film festival. “We thought it was about time to bring a giant monster movie here,” he said.

“Godzilla Minus Zero” opens later this year, arriving as the first R-rated entry in a franchise now in its eighth decade — and as the latest test of whether adult-oriented ratings can still anchor a global blockbuster.