Godzilla Minus Zero is heading for a record $32M opening in North America

No live-action film in a language other than English has opened this big in North America. Toho’s sequel is on track for about $32 million over its first weekend, according to estimates reported by The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.

The previews were already a good sign: earlier we reported roughly $6 million from Thursday shows. Friday then brought $14.5 million, previews included, from 3,254 theaters, Variety says, leaving Warner Bros.’ animated The Cat in the Hat far behind at $6 million.

The old benchmark in this category belonged to Zhang Yimou’s martial-arts epic Hero, which opened with $17.8 million, THR notes. Animation is counted separately: Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle still holds the overall foreign-language record with $70.6 million.

The comparison with the first film is even starker. Godzilla Minus One started with $11.4 million in December 2023 and ended its domestic run at $57.1 million. Minus Zero nearly triples that debut, with an A CinemaScore from audiences and a start well above the projection of its distributor, GKIDS, according to THR. That is a lot of monster for a film with a reported budget in the mid-teens of millions.

The Cat in the Hat, which cost $92 million, is tracking for around $18 million, short of the $20 million Warner Bros. had projected.

Reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Variety. Compiled with AI tools.