‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Stomps Onto Rotten Tomatoes, but Can It Topple ‘Minus One’?

Few sequels have walked into their premiere carrying expectations as heavy as ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’, and its Rotten Tomatoes score was always going to be scrutinized. Its predecessor, ‘Godzilla Minus One‘, was a global box office smash that earned over $116 million worldwide and won Best Visual Effects at the 96th Academy Awards, a first for a Japanese film.

Director Takashi Yamazaki returned for the follow-up as director, screenwriter, and VFX lead, and chose a prestigious launchpad. The sequel had its world premiere as the Spotlight Gala selection of the 64th New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall on September 26.

Once critics weighed in, the numbers arrived fast. As DiscussingFilm reported, ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ debuted with 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, lower than the first film, with the page showing a Tomatometer based on just 12 reviews at the time. Earlier tallies had the film at 93% from 14 reviews, while ‘Godzilla Minus One’ holds a 99% score.

Context matters here. With only a handful of reviews compared to 213 for the 2023 film, the critics’ score could still rise and rival its predecessor once the sequel hits theaters. The early number also places it as the 4th-best entry in the series on the site, well ahead of Monsterverse sequels like ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ at 75% and ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ at 54%.

‘GODZILLA MINUS ZERO’ debuts with 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, lower than the first film. Read our review: https://t.co/hNkhKvSMVo https://t.co/b1j60j2NKa

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) September 27, 2026

The praise has been loud in places. Polygon’s Jake Kleinman went as far as crowning it the best Godzilla movie ever made, while The Guardian’s Jesse Hassenger admired how it fuses brutal monster combat with disaster-movie scale and horror-movie bite.

Not everyone was fully sold. RogerEbert.com’s review argued the sequel doesn’t quite hit the miraculous highs of ‘Minus One’ and suffers from rehashing similar thematic ground, though it still has plenty of bite. The Daily Beast’s Nick Schager was the lone early “rotten” review, arguing its moments of true majesty are too rare.

The new trailer for ‘GODZILLA MINUS ZERO’ has been released.

In theaters on November 6. pic.twitter.com/sgaEXweerd

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) September 8, 2026

TheWrap’s William Bibbiani landed somewhere in between, giving the film a “fresh” rating while expressing some reservations. That mixture of rapture and mild reservation explains the small gap between the 2 films’ scores.

Part of the conversation centers on how much darker the sequel goes. Unlike the first, this one is rated R, with Yamazaki lingering on bodies charred by nuclear fire and even Godzilla taking gorier damage than audiences have seen before. The Rotten Tomatoes page lists the rating for bloody images and some violent content, with a runtime of 2h 15m.

The story picks up in 1949, 2 years after the events of ‘Minus One’, following the Shikishima family as they face an all-new calamity. Ryunosuke Kamiki returns as Koichi Shikishima alongside Minami Hamabe as Noriko, and newcomer Min Tanaka joins as Kanji Murakami, a biologist carrying deep psychological scars from the war.

The scale has grown too. It is the first Japanese production filmed for IMAX, and it features a major sequence in which Godzilla rampages past the Statue of Liberty. The trailer has also confirmed King Ghidorah’s arrival, hinting at a showdown with the still-alive Godzilla.

Online, many viewers weren’t impressed by the comparison. One popular reply under DiscussingFilm’s post pointed out that people were treating 92% like a flop, adding that anything above 90% is remarkable. Others mocked the framing with sarcastic takes about “disastrous” near-perfect scores.

Audiences won’t have to wait long to judge for themselves. Toho releases the film in Japan on November 3, known as Godzilla Day, while GKIDS brings it to North American theaters on November 6.

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