‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Keeps Outpacing ‘Minus One’ as the Box Office Numbers Climb

‘Godzilla Minus One’ was a small Japanese monster movie that became a global hit, and that’s the bar ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ has to clear. It opened to $11.4 million before reaching $114 million worldwide on a tiny $15 million budget, and it grossed $57.1 million domestically and won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Expectations for the ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ box office were high, and so far it’s meeting them.

Toho is releasing the film in a new way. It opened in Japan on Tuesday, November 3, which is “Godzilla Day” in Japan, marking the anniversary of the first ‘Godzilla’ film’s November 3, 1954 release. This is the first time a Japan-produced ‘Godzilla’ film will open in Japan and North America in the same week, and it is also hitting Latin America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand in that same window.

The early numbers are strong. Japan’s 3-day total has already reached ¥1.37 billion, or roughly $8.7 million, according to Box Office Forecast’s latest update. The account’s day-1 comparisons put the sequel at about 180% of ‘Minus One’ in Australia and around 110% in the Netherlands, though Germany is at about 85%.

The opening day was historic. Toho announced that the film sold 590,000 tickets for 910 million yen, about US$5.75 million, on opening day alone, setting a new record for the highest opening-day earnings for any live-action film in Japan, foreign or domestic. That was 201% higher than ‘Godzilla Minus One’ on its first day.

IMAX helped too. Deadline is hearing that the film’s IMAX opening day also beat that of ‘Infinity Castle’. Japanese forecasts project a final total there of more than ¥10 billion, or $63.2 million, which would be a huge result on home turf.

🚨#GodzillaMinusZero KEEPS OUTPACING MINUS ONE BOX OFFICE! And Japan 3-day total is already ¥1.37B ($8.7M) 📊 Day-1 comps: 🆚Godzilla Minus One 🇦🇺~180%✅|🇩🇪~85%❌|🇳🇱~110%✅ 🆚Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire 🇦🇺~20%❌|🇩🇪~15%❌|🇳🇱~15%❌ 🆚Pacific Rim Uprising 🇦🇺~45%❌|🇩🇪~40%❌|🇳🇱~55%❌ 🌍$60M global opening in play! Is $200M WW now on the table? Budget💸: <$15M – Easy Profit👍

— Box Office Forecast 🎬 (@BoxOfficeFcst) November 6, 2026

Not every comparison favors the sequel. Box Office Forecast’s comps show it well behind ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’, at around 15% to 20% of that film’s day-1 numbers in the 3 markets tracked. It is also behind ‘Pacific Rim Uprising’, at about 40% to 55% of that film’s opening day.

Godzilla lives! Face the monsters in the historic, critically acclaimed epic #GodzillaMinusZero, in theatres &amp; IMAX nationwide. #FilmedForIMAX Get tickets now. https://t.co/2Ktmma6fOa https://t.co/Ku73umnqX0

— GODZILLA.OFFICIAL (@Godzilla_Toho) November 5, 2026

That gap is expected. A subtitled Japanese release won’t match a Hollywood MonsterVerse film on day 1, and those comps mostly show how much more widely the American blockbusters open. Measured against its own predecessor, ‘Minus Zero’ is clearly growing the audience.

Industry tracking says yes. ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ is tracking for $25 million to $33 million domestically, with another $30 million overseas, for a global start near $60 million, which is roughly triple what ‘Godzilla Minus One’ opened to in 2023. Box Office Forecast thinks a $200 million worldwide total could now be possible.

First behind the scenes teaser for ‘GODZILLA MINUS ZERO’. In theaters on November 6. https://t.co/c0burtpq3o

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) August 26, 2026

Even the low end is good news for the distributor. An opening in the mid-$20 million range in North America would still be the biggest ever for Gkids, beating its previous high of $13 million for Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘The Boy and the Heron’. The film opens this weekend in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, France, Germany, the UK, Spain and Japan.

The budget is less clear. Box Office Forecast puts it under $15 million and calls the film an easy profit, but Yamazaki has said the budget would likely be larger this time around, so treat the break-even estimate with some caution.

Strong reviews should help keep it going. It holds 96% on Rotten Tomatoes from 46 reviews and 78 on Metacritic from 23 reviews, and Rotten Tomatoes’ first-reviews roundup says its mass-destruction sequences surpass the first film’s in complexity, creativity and visual effects. It is also the first Japanese film shot for IMAX, which gives fans a reason to see it on the biggest screen they can find.

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