Godzilla Minus Zero opened at No. 1 in the United States and Canada with an estimated $31.6 million, nearly triple the opening of its 2023 predecessor. Takashi Yamazaki’s Japanese-language sequel played in 3,254 North American theaters over the Nov. 6–8 weekend, according to TheWrap. Warner Bros.’ animated The Cat in the Hat finished second with an estimated $20.5 million.

The opening set a record for North American distributor GKIDS. It also showed how much a wide release for an established Japanese franchise can draw from large-format theaters: about $12.7 million, or two-fifths of its North American gross, came from IMAX, Boxoffice Pro reported. The weekend figures are estimates, with final domestic totals due Monday, according to the Associated Press.

Three days from Japan to North America

Toho opened the film in Japan on Nov. 3, the anniversary of the original Godzilla release there in 1954. North American audiences could see it the same day at IMAX previews; GKIDS widened the release to standard and premium theaters on Friday. The short gap between the two markets meant the North American launch could share the attention surrounding the Japanese opening, while still giving the premium format an early window.

The box office figures put the worldwide opening at about $63 million, with roughly half of that from the United States and Canada. Japan contributed about $17 million, according to the AP and TheWrap. The release calendar matters when comparing those figures: the Japanese run began on Tuesday, while the North American weekend estimate is based on Friday through Sunday and includes previews. The totals show the scale of the release across markets, but they are not a comparison of ticket sales over identical periods.

How much came from premium screens

Godzilla Minus Zero was the first Japanese production made under the Filmed for IMAX program, according to IMAX. The company says about 75 minutes use an expanded picture format. GKIDS and Toho made that format part of the release plan from the start, advertising the early screenings before the wider rollout. The two companies also offered standard screenings once the film opened broadly, so access was not limited to theaters equipped to show the premium version.

IMAX generated about $21.3 million worldwide, roughly one-third of the opening gross, the AP reported. The format’s share was higher in North America, where industry figures put it at roughly 40 percent. Those shares measure dollars, not admissions. They show the format’s importance to the opening but do not establish how many viewers chose it or how much business standard screenings would have done without it.

A bigger start than the Oscar-winning predecessor

Yamazaki returned after directing Godzilla Minus One, which won the Academy Award for visual effects. The sequel takes place in 1949, two years after the earlier film’s events, as Japan is still rebuilding from the war, according to GKIDS. The distributor entered the weekend with a returning filmmaker, a story set in the same postwar Japan, and a predecessor that had already found a North American audience.

Minus One opened to $11.4 million in North America and ultimately took in $57.1 million there, according to TheWrap. The sequel’s estimated first weekend is already more than half of that entire run. It also surpassed GKIDS’ previous opening record, the $13 million debut of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated The Boy and the Heron in 2023. Those are two different benchmarks: the predecessor shows how far the sequel has moved ahead at the starting line, while the Miyazaki film shows how much the opening raised the distributor’s own record.

What the opening leaves unanswered

The historical ranking depends on how the field is defined. The new film passed the roughly $18 million opening of Hero, a benchmark for imported live-action films in languages other than English. The AP noted that The Passion of the Christ, a U.S. production with largely Aramaic dialogue, opened higher. Animated films are another comparison: last year’s Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle also opened higher. The most useful measure here is the size of the debut for an imported live-action film, alongside the clear record for GKIDS.

The same weekend supplied a second example of a distributor opening an international film across many U.S. and Canadian theaters. Sony’s North American release of the Hindi-language epic Ramayana: Rise of a Legend earned an estimated $8.7 million over the weekend, the AP reported. The release set a record for the breadth of an Indian film’s North American rollout, though its earnings remained well below the Japanese sequel’s.

One weekend cannot show how long theaters will retain Godzilla Minus Zero or how much business it will do after the first rush of fans. The next useful comparison will be its second weekend, which will show how much of the initial gross it can sustain. For now, the reported grosses show that a Japanese-language sequel could lead the North American weekend with a wide release, and that large-format screens accounted for a substantial part of that result.