Godzilla Minus One, still showing in French cinemas, continues to break international records! Here are some astonishing figures surrounding this phenomenon film about the king of the monsters.
Godzilla Minus One, released in theaters on January 17, continues to break international records! Directed by Takashi Yamazaki, the feature film has become a global phenomenon, hailed by audiences and critics as one of the best films about the famous Kaiju.
To understand the extent of the phenomenon, here are some key figures surrounding this work. As a reminder, Minus One is scheduled in French cinemas for 15 days, from January 17 to 31.
A limited budget and a box office triumph
Takashi Yamazaki and his teams have achieved a real feat with Godzilla Minus One. Shot on a limited budget estimated at around $15 million, the film has just crossed the 100 million greenback mark collected internationally!
For comparison, the previous Japanese film centered on the Kaiju, Shin Godzilla (2016), had a budget of around 10 million. The work garnered 80 at the worldwide box office, including 75 million in Japan alone and only 1.7 million in the United States.
This time, most of Minus One’s revenue comes from Uncle Sam’s country with 51 million. With this score, Yamazaki’s feature film becomes the 5th highest grossing success of all time for a non-American film in the USA. It also becomes the only non-American work to pass the 50 million milestone since Parasite in 2019.
As a reminder, Godzilla Minus One got off to a thunderous start when it was released in the United States on December 1, collecting $11.4 million in 3 days. It was the 2nd biggest start in US box office history for a non-English live action film behind Hero and its 18 million.
Note that the budget of Minus One is more than 10 times lower than that of recent American versions of Godzilla. The 2014 film directed by Gareth Edwards cost $160 million. The last one, Godzilla VS Kong, claimed a monstrous budget of 200 million greenbacks.
Toho
Ingenious special effects
To compensate for the limited budget, Takashi Yamazaki’s team had to be very creative in creating the visual effects. During an event organized by the Academy of Oscars to present the nominees for the Best Special Effects statuette, the Minus One team revealed some astonishing figures.
The team behind the film’s mind-blowing visual effects was made up of only 35 people! In total, these artists supervised 610 shots requiring computer-generated images. This colossal work is to be commended as the special effects are convincing and very ingenious! In addition, the design of the monster is absolutely frightening, including details down to the smallest scales, a total success.
Toho
2001, Godzilla’s Odyssey
Furthermore, Godzilla Minus One risks breaking another 56-year-old record! If the film wins the Oscar for Best Special Effects, Takashi Yamazaki will be the first director to receive this award since Stanley Kubrick in 1968 for 2001, A Space Odyssey.
Indeed, the Japanese filmmaker supervised the visual effects team with particular attention, taking a very active part in the process of producing these major sequences. Yamazaki is a great enthusiast of VFX and 3D, as evidenced by his previous feature films such as Lupine III The First, Space Battleship or The Last Assault.
Will Godzilla’s Odyssey end at the Oscars ceremony, with a historic statuette up for grabs? Response on March 10. In the meantime, Minus One is showing in French theaters until January 31. As for the US version of Kaiju, he will be back on April 3 in Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire.