‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Is A Box Office Hero With $32M Live-Action Foreign-Language Opening Record – Saturday AM Update

SATURDAY AM: Refresh for more analysis and chart…. In what is a never-before-seen stat, 74% of Imax and PLFs combined are driving the weekend gross of Gkids’ Godzilla Minus Zero‘s $32M opening after a $14.5M Friday. That share is bigger than the first weekend gross of Universal’s The Odyssey which collected 52% of of its $123.5M opening weekend from both Imax and PLF auditoriums. This success is all of an under $10M marketing spend, and you can believe that because iSpot show zero TV spots being purchased. Japan’s running cume on Godzilla Minus Zero since Tuesday is up to $11.8M (or 2.08 billion yen).

The Takashi Yamazki directed movie gets a solid A CinemaScore, just like its first movie, 2023’s Godzilla Minus One. The definite recommend from Screen Engine/Rentrak’s PostTrak is massive at 85% and a 95% positive. As we told you as, the opening here for Godzilla Minus Zero reps a record domestic start for Gkids not to mention it’s the best opening for a live-action foreign language film (Not the overall record opening for a foreign language film at the domestic B.O. is held by Sony/Crunchyroll’s Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle with $70.6M).

Godzilla Minus Zero is playing even throughout the country but the West is rallying with a third of the gross versus 24.7% for all other titles in the marketplace. Adam Aron’s AMC Lincoln Center can trumpet the best gross for the film with just over $124K.

Diversity demos are 37% Caucasian, 32% Hispanic and Latino, 13% Asian American and 13% Black.

RelishMix shows a social media pull before opening which was only at 170M, 29% below sci-fi creature-feature genre norms across TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube and Instagram, which is amazing what Gkids pulled off here. However, the word of mouth index shot up from a 6.8 on RelishMix Oct. 5 to 7.4 by Nov. 2.

“Convo runs positive for Godzilla Minus Zero and fans have cracked the title in record time: ‘Now I understand the title… Minus Zero for Monster Zero,’ which lets the excitement be summed up as ‘Minus Zero Plus Hype.’ The comparisons with Marvel favor the kaiju, from ‘This is a guaranteed cinema ticket, meanwhile Avengers < minus zero chance,” to ‘We don’t need Avengers, just gimme Ghidorah VS Godzilla.’ Toho’s efficiency is part of the brand now, with ‘Amazing what can be achieved on a budget when you actually care about a franchise,’ and ‘You can tell right away this on 10x the budget. It looks good.’ The goodwill from Godzilla Minus One is doing a lot of work: ‘If it’s even half as good as Godzilla Minus One, then I am all in! and ‘First one was like a breeze of fresh air, I hope the second one seals the deal!’ Nostalgia is spanning generations, with ‘I’m 41, and it feels like I’m 12 again wanting to see Ghidorah.’”

Warner Bros Pictures Animation’s The Cat in the Hat has a shot at still hitting $20M after landing an A CinemaScore. Yesterday’s nine of the top ten theaters were in New Jersey. Huh, how? Because there was a teacher’s conference and schools were off. The AMC Dine-In Shops at Riverside, NJ was the pic’s highest grossing venue at $21K. The notion is that this movie is headed for more traffic by Wednesday, Veterans Day.

Angel Studios’ Drummer Boy with a 50% Rotten Tomatoes Critics score but A CinemaScore and 93% RT audience score is filing an $8.8M opening on the higher end in the No. 3 spot after a $3.5M Friday. The start here isn’t far from Joel David Smallbone’s previously directed 2024 faith-based title Unsung Hero at $7.7M. The South is the strongest with this movie with 28% of the gross versus a norm of 17% for other titles in the marketplace. The Regal River Ridge in Virginia is the leading single-location gross at $38.7K. As is par for the course, Angel Studio movies benefit from groups scooping up tickets and giving them out for free to patrons. Postrak is 81% definite recommend with 46% of the audience over 55 with an overall female leaning at 64% and 36% men. Diversity demos are 73% Caucasian, 11% Hispanic and Latino, 8% Black and 3% Asian American.

A24’s fourth weekend of You Can See Everything is estimated to be around $7.8M in fourth, -32%, after a $2.55M Friday at 2,473 theaters. Some now think this documentary has a shot at $100M stateside, the running cume by EOD Sunday up to $78.7M. We avoided comping this film to nature and science docs given how they’re juiced by Imax, by Elizabeth Holmes and Nathan Fielder will cage up March of the Penguins tomorrow, that pic ending its U.S./Canada run $77.4M.

Sony Pictures’ release of Prime Focus Studios’ Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, took in $2.4M on Friday at 1,433 locations. The 3-day is shaping up to be $7.3M in the No. 5 spot for a 4-day and previews of $10.8M. PostTrak is great with 86% in the top two boxes and a 75% definite recommend for the general audience. There were a few Imax and PLFs driving 40% of the gross with ten play throughout the country, though best in the East. The LSQ Cinema Bistro in Washington has the pic’s best ticket sales so far with $27K. The two day global cume we’re seeing out there from Yash, and take this with a grain of salt, is $23M WW so far, which includes India. The two-part movie, of which this is the first, cost between $420M-$500M. Mama mia….

Diversity demos are 71% Asian American, 9% Caucasian, 5% Latino and Hispanic and 3% Black. 61% male skewing. The 25-34 set is the biggest demo at 40% with the under 35 demo at 55%.

Usually Martin McDonagh movies get platformed, but Searchlight went wide with his latest Wild Horse Nine at 1,100 theaters which is seeing $2.47M on Friday (including previews) for an estimated $4.5M. That’s higher than CBS Films’ wide release of the Oscar winning filmmaker’s crime comedy, Seven Psychopaths in 2012 which bowed to $4.1M at 1,480 theaters and finaled at $15M. Big cities are doing well, read NYC, LA, Boston, DC, Chicago, Orlando and Austin and audiences really like it at 89% on RT and a 72% definite recommend on PostTrak. The theater count will increase, so all eyes on how this expands; John Malkovich is heavily buzzed in the actors race this awards season. Sixty-six men to 34% men to women turnout with 37% of the audience over 45 and the over 55 set being the biggest demo at 26% followed by 25-34 at 25%.

An interesting stunt here for Crave’s Heated Rivalry: No. 2 chain via their Regal Entertainment Distribution is releasing paired season one episodes of the hit Bell/HBO series this weekend. So far 880 theaters collected $420K yesterday in what looks to be a $1.3M opening weekend. All circuits, not just Real, are playing the romance hockey show. Regal cut the deal with Sphere Abacus.

Overall, it’s the best first weekend in November post Covid with all films grossing an estimated $114M, ahead of 2021’s when Disney/Marvel’s Eternals bowed and drove a near $110M marketplace.

A24’s Cannes-pick-up, Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid posted $175K yesterday on its way to a $390K opening at six locations for a $65K opening theater average, just behind La Bola Negra‘s $69,4K from a few weeks ago. AMC Lincoln Square led yesterday with $47K, followed by Angelika at $32K.

A solid per theater here for Amazon MGM Studio’s Peter Farrelly directed I Play Rocky at $47,1K off an expected 3-day of $330K from seven theaters. Friday was $164K. AMC Burbank leads the pack with $33,2K, followed by Lincoln Square in NYC with $31K.

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FRIDAY PM UPDATE: Gkids’ Godzilla Minus Zero looks to be coming in at its opening range of $30 million-$33 million after a $13.5M Friday at 3,254 theaters that includes $6.7M in previews. At that level, that’s not only the biggest-ever opening for distributor Gkids, but it also would be the biggest opening for a live-action foreign-language movie at the domestic box office. It would overtake the 2002 Chinese movie Hero, which bowed to $17.8M. Fantastic.

Saturday will dictate if there’s a further expanded audience for the Takashi Yamazki-directed movie.

Second place goes to Warner Bros Animation’s The Cat in the Hat with a $5M Friday (including $1M previews) and a three-day total between $17M-$20M at 4,003 theaters. Critics are saying scat to the cat at 48% Rotten on Rotten Tomatoes.

Angel Studios’ colonial period feature Drummer Boy at 2,850 theaters is third with a $3.8M Friday and $9M opening.

A24’s You Can See Everything, booked at 2,473 screens, is seeing a fourth weekend between $8M-$9M in fourth place, -25%, for a running cume of $79.6M not the high end. Today is around $3.2M.

Sony’s release of Prime Focus Studios’ Ramayana: Rise of the Legend at 1,433 theaters is fifth with $6M over three days, $9M over four days.

Outside the top five is Searchlight’s Wild Horse Nine at 1,110 theaters, with $2.3M today and around $5M-$6M. That is around what Wicker debuted at ($5.7M) at 1,471 locations two weeks ago.

FRIDAY AM UPDATE: Gkids’ release of Toho’s Godzilla Minus Zero is higher with $6.7M in previews since Tuesday. As we told you that beats a slews of previews, including Legendary’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, last year’s Predator: Badlands, but also another big Japanese title here, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu at $5.7M. Granted, it was a PG movie to Godzilla Minus Zero‘s R, but that pic posted a $20.5M first day and $54.3M opening back in mid-May 2019.

A $30M opening was considered the high end for Godzilla Minus Zero heading into the weekend and now it looks like it’s the low end. The audience score is huge at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Sony Pictures’s release of Prime Focus Studios’ Ramayana: Rise of a Legend grossed $3.5 million on Thursday from 1,433 locations (including Wednesday previews), marking the widest North American release for an Indian film. Sony still thinks the movie, which is part of a $420M-$500M two part feature, is bound for a $6M opening. The pic, released in time for Diwali, currently holds a 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Popcornmeter.

Warner Bros’ The Cat in the Hat came in right where it was at last night with $1M in previews.

Searchlight’s previews (both Thursday and early access) for Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine are at a great $900K. That’s not far from what Paramount/Miramax’s Roofman did last year in previews which was $1M before an $8.1M opening (though that pic was uber wide at 3,362 theaters). Wild Horse Nine is booked in 1,100 theaters.

PREVIOUS EXCLUSIVE, Thursday PM: Takashi Yamazaki’sR-rated Godzilla Minus Zerois roaring in the November box office to a great start with what we’re hearing is around $6 million in previews. That includes fan shows from Godzilla Day Tuesday, last night and tonight, the latter being $4M+. Today’s showtimes began at 10AM.

It’s very interesting that Godzilla Minus Zero gets an R: There aren’t any lizards who get naked in the movie, nor does any person or monster have a ‘F’ bomb tirade despite massive destruction in Japan as Godzilla and Ghidorah.

This is easily a preview record for Godzilla Minus Zero U.S. distributor GKIDs beating their previous high, 2023’s The Boy and the Heron which posted a Thursday and early access previews of $2.39M, and a 3-day of $13M. Early monies here on Godzilla Minus Zero are way above the $2.1M made by Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One from its Wednesday and Thursday showtimes which went on to an $11.4M opening.

The industry forecast on the high end was $30M+ in North America for Godzilla Minus Zero, which is boosted by Imax and a ton of PLFs, but now it could be way higher when you look at the comps that the sequel is beating.

Last year at this time, Disney kicked off November with Predator: Badlands with $4.8M in Wednesday and Thursday previews which yielded a $15.8M Friday and $40M opening. Godzilla Minus Zero in previews is very close to another U.S. Godzilla, Legendary’s 2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters which posted $6.3M in Thursday previews on its way to a $19.4M Friday and $47.7M opening. Legendary has the rights from Toho to make any English-language version from the Godzilla universe. Godzilla Minus Zero is 91% certified fresh to Godzilla Minus One‘s 99% fresh with critics. That Oscar winning movie landed an A CinemaScore. The only other Godzilla to receive a solid A was Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong in 2021 (2024’s Godzilla x King roared an A-).

In Japan, Godzilla Minus Zero is up to 1.38 billion yen or $8.7M and that’s through three days. That opening Godzilla Day gross of 910M yen ($5.7M) is indeed a record for a live-action pic in Japan, besting the opening day of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (840M yen).

Warner Bros Pictures Animation’s net $86M production of The Cat in the Hat from filmmakers Alessandro Carloni and Erica Rivinoja is looking like $1M today after previews that began at 2PM. That’s on par with Sony Pictures Animation’s Goat which opened earlier this year and went on to open to $27.7M. Illumination/Universal’s The Grinch posted $2.2M in previews before a $67.5M opening weekend during the second frame of November 2018. Note, Cat in the Hat is one of the few family movies around this holiday season next to Disney’s girl-skewing Hexed which bows on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.