‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Kicks Off November Box Office With $31 Million Opening

Toho/GKids’ “Godzilla Minus Zero” is off to a roaring start at the box office with a $14.7 million opening day at the box office, putting it on course for an industry estimated $31 million opening from 3,254 locations. That is nearly triple the $11.4 million that Takashi Yamazaki’s previous kaiju film, “Godzilla Minus One,” earned in December 2023 en route to a $57.4 million domestic total. “Minus Zero” is now just the fourth non-English film ever to take the No. 1 spot at the U.S. box office, joining “The Passion of the Christ,” the Zhang Yimou wuxia film “Hero,” and the anime film “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle,” which was released by Crunchyroll last year in English and Japanese dubs. We will see if this sequel is able to exceed its predecessor’s total or if it proves to be more frontloaded with fans of “Minus One” simply rushing out faster to see it on opening weekend. But there are signs that “Minus Zero” may be in for a longer run as the movie not only has stellar scores with an A on CinemaScore and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 90% critics and 96% audience, but streaming guide site JustWatch reports that “Godzilla Minus One” has become the most watched film on streaming across all platforms this past week, showing a desire among uninitiated audiences to get caught up. In second is Warner Bros. Picture Animation’s “The Cat in the Hat” with a $6 million opening day from 4,003 locations as it is now tracking for an $18 million opening weekend. It’s an opening that’s below past Warner animated films like “DC League of Super Pets,” which launched to $23 million in the summer of 2022, and puts the Dr. Seuss adaptation on an uphill battle to avoid joining the long list of theatrical disappointments for Warner Bros. this year. The good news for “Cat in the Hat” is that it has enjoyed strong audience reception with an A on CinemaScore, with the highest marks coming from the core family demographic. The hope now for Warner Bros. is that this word-of-mouth allows the film to keep legging out with families all the way into and through Thanksgiving, building enough momentum with parents and kids to remain a popular offering amongst them even with Disney’s “Hexed” coming to theaters on Thanksgiving weekend. In a tight race for third is A24’s “You Can See Everything” and Sony Pictures’ “Ramayana: Rise of a Legend,” both with an industry estimated $8 million this weekend. For “You Can See Everything,” that’s a remarkable fourth weekend hold that makes it the only holdover in the top 5, bringing its total to $78.9 million through Sunday as it seeks to join “Fahrenheit 9/11” as only the second non-music or nature documentary to cross $100 million domestic. For “Ramayana,” the first part of a two-part Indian tentpole blockbuster from director Nitesh Tiwari and producer Namit Maholtra, it is looking at a 4-day opening weekend of $11.5 million, a start that’s just a couple steps below the $14 million 4-day launch of “Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge” earlier this year. But with an estimated $420 million combined production and marketing budget for both installments, “Ramayana” will need to become one of the highest grossing Indian productions of all time to be a true theatrical success. More to come…