Sci-Fi Godzilla Minus One

[SomeOldGuy]

$11.03 million for the weekend, beating the $8-10 million projection.

 

[TheVileOne]

That's very good for a foreign-language subtitled release. Just for example, the Demon Slayer Swordsmith Village theatrical presentation did about $10 million domestic opening weekend to about $56 million worldwide earlier this year. And Demon Slayer is very popular, so this did slightly higher.

Also, it wouldn't surprise me if the final numbers are even bigger once the actuals come in.

Ideally what I'd like to see is this make a decent chunk of change. I hope Takashi Yamazaki gets a blank check for his next film and is given creative free reign. And we can also see more releases like this straight from TOHO rather than from American studio partners.

To me the message is simple. No one understands or gets Godzilla like Japan does.

 

[TheVileOne]

What an experience that was in IMAX, both in spectacle and emotion.

I knew I was doomed when baby Akiko showed up.

Not sure what they did with that little girl but I was welling up whenever she cried. The movie really made you feel it when characters were in distress. It wasn't like "oh that little kid is annoying, I don't want to see them onscreen." I just felt genuine distress and unease. Her performance was amazing.

American movies rarely make me feel like this these days.

 

[Sithborg]

Not sure what they did with that little girl but I was welling up whenever she cried. The movie really made you feel it when characters were in distress. It wasn't like "oh that little kid is annoying, I don't want to see them onscreen." I just felt genuine distress and unease. Her performance was amazing.

American movies rarely make me feel like this these days.

I think they filmed her at those times when she was going long without her nap. Having been around toddlers, that is what it felt like.

 

[Arachnerd]

Why did you post this here?

 

[Another_Fool]

Not sure what they did with that little girl but I was welling up whenever she cried. The movie really made you feel it when characters were in distress. It wasn't like "oh that little kid is annoying, I don't want to see them onscreen." I just felt genuine distress and unease. Her performance was amazing.

American movies rarely make me feel like this these days.

Spoiler

That one scene where she cheesing while pointing out Noriko in her drawing felt so earnest and wholesome.

 

[Punisher_MAX]

That's very good for a foreign-language subtitled release. Just for example, the Demon Slayer Swordsmith Village theatrical presentation did about $10 million domestic opening weekend to about $56 million worldwide earlier this year. And Demon Slayer is very popular, so this did slightly higher.

Also, it wouldn't surprise me if the final numbers are even bigger once the actuals come in.

Ideally what I'd like to see is this make a decent chunk of change. I hope Takashi Yamazaki gets a blank check for his next film and is given creative free reign. And we can also see more releases like this straight from TOHO rather than from American studio partners.

To me the message is simple. No one understands or gets Godzilla like Japan does.

I'm not sure we can definitely say that America doesn't get Godzilla, I just think the powers that be, the ones who fund the projects, don't see the value in having Godzilla be a giant terrifying metaphor vs a fun romp at the movies.

If you had someone like Nolan tackle Godzilla I think we'd get an amazing interpretation, but alas that'll never happen.

 

[Predator jp]

i'm Japanese and i will tell you $15m is considered to be "a big badget blockbuster" in Japan. pathetic i know but it is what it is lol Toho should've released it in english dub to make it more accessible to wider audiences. maybe they couldn't because of the strike? glad many Americans are enjoying it tho.

 

[Sithborg]

What's even crazier, is that isn't even the biggest budget of a Toho Godzilla film. Final Wars, which I love, still holds that title, apparently.

i'm Japanese and i will tell you $15m is considered to be "a big badget blockbuster" in Japan. pathetic i know but it is what it is lol Toho should've released it in english dub to make it more accessible to wider audiences. maybe they couldn't because of the strike? glad many Americans are enjoying it tho.

I mean, recent stuff has shown just what you can do with a small budget for CG. Sure, we aren't seeing stuff on par of Avatar, or Thanos, or a few other high CG effects. But, for my money, Minus One and Shin Ultraman look better a lot of what we've seen this year. At fractions of fractions of the cost.

As for the dub, I think this is a side effect of Toho doing the distribution itself. Even with Funimation/Crunchyroll, the big anime movies with dubs did not get a simultaneous release. Even getting a simul dub is a big resource for anime.

 

[Bayne]

Saw it this morning and while the fx weren't quite as mind-blowingly good as I expected based on the trailers and reviews (still better than half of Hollywood at 2% of the price) it is definitely the best Godzilla movie in existence. For that matter, it's the best movie I've seen this year and better than any movie I've seen since EEAAO.

I'm not sure we can definitely say that America doesn't get Godzilla, I just think the powers that be, the ones who fund the projects, don't see the value in having Godzilla be a giant terrifying metaphor vs a fun romp at the movies.

If you had someone like Nolan tackle Godzilla I think we'd get an amazing interpretation, but alas that'll never happen.

I agree. And even beyond that, I'd say equally it's weird to say that Toho automatically always does 'get' Godzilla. This one was an amazing outing and others have been really good, too, but their strategy over the past 7 decades has had a lot of throwing **** at the wall to see what sticks.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

$11.03 million for the weekend, beating the $8-10 million projection.

Actual came in $11.4 million thanks to a bigger than expected Sunday.

 

[The Big G]

I agree. And even beyond that, I'd say equally it's weird to say that Toho automatically always does 'get' Godzilla. This one was an amazing outing and others have been really good, too, but their strategy over the past 7 decades has had a lot of throwing **** at the wall to see what sticks.

Yeah. The comment of "Only Toho knows how to make a good Godzilla Film" is code for like "Ive only watched the original, GMO and the Legendary Movies. Because as much as I love Toho, they arguably have more Ls than Ws.

Not every Godzilla film is an essay on some global issue. Destroy All Monsters was Avengers Endgame decades before the MCU was a twinkle in Feige's eye.

But all and all, I'm soo glad GMO is doing well and it has had wonderful Word of Mouth. I really hope it gets some Oscar nominations because it stands side to side with the best films of this year.

 

[Bayne]

Yeah. The comment of "Only Toho knows how to make a good Godzilla Film" is code for like "Ive only watched the original, GMO and the Legendary Movies. Because as much as I love Toho, they arguably have more Ls than Ws.

Not every Godzilla film is an essay on some global issue. Destroy All Monsters was Avengers Endgame decades before the MCU was a twinkle in Feige's eye.

But all and all, I'm soo glad GMO is doing well and it has had wonderful Word of Mouth. I really hope it gets some Oscar nominations because it stands side to side with the best films of this year.

Agreed. And honestly, for me G-1 is definitely the best Godzilla film but it's not the best Godzilla film because it's good at being serious. It's the best at doing what it's trying to do and making me interested in that.

Really, a big part of what I enjoy about Godzilla as a franchise is how wildly different everything is. It's like an anti-shared universe where anything and everything goes, comedy, action, drama, tragedy, bat**** sci-fi, historical - based on the original film or a completely different one or just ignoring all the other films entirely. A Godzilla film can literally be anything. All that matters is whether it's good or not.

 

[Another_Fool]

Yeah. The comment of "Only Toho knows how to make a good Godzilla Film" is code for like "Ive only watched the original, GMO and the Legendary Movies. Because as much as I love Toho, they arguably have more Ls than Ws.

Yeah that narrative only started after Shin Godzilla. Hell I remember after 2014, Goji fans, while lamenting the lack of fights, felt like Edwards took Godzilla more seriously than some of Toho's efforts. I even think 2014 and KOTM are better than 2/3rds of Toho's Godzilla library.

However I do admit, after the relative success of the MV Godzilla, and winning awards for Shin, I feel like Toho now approaches Godzilla as kind of a marquee brand in that they're approaching/fielding innovative ideas and giving the directors real money to make something special. This is like the Millenium era but with mega budgets in Japanese standards.

 

[TheVileOne]

Yeah. The comment of "Only Toho knows how to make a good Godzilla Film" is code for like "Ive only watched the original, GMO and the Legendary Movies. Because as much as I love Toho, they arguably have more Ls than Ws.

Not every Godzilla film is an essay on some global issue. Destroy All Monsters was Avengers Endgame decades before the MCU was a twinkle in Feige's eye.

But all and all, I'm soo glad GMO is doing well and it has had wonderful Word of Mouth. I really hope it gets some Oscar nominations because it stands side to side with the best films of this year.

IMHO the Toho ones are still the best.

Also, in USD, the budget of Shin Godzilla comes out to about $6.8 million. So this was a little more than twice that budget. The film has made $34 million worldwide so far, so it's doing well.

 

[Sithborg]

IMHO the Toho ones are still the best.

Also, in USD, the budget of Shin Godzilla comes out to about $6.8 million. So this was a little more than twice that budget. The film has made $34 million worldwide so far, so it's doing well.

And Toho has made some of the worst. you are looking at roughly a 33 film history versus 5 films.

 

[The Big G]

IMHO the Toho ones are still the best.

Also, in USD, the budget of Shin Godzilla comes out to about $6.8 million. So this was a little more than twice that budget. The film has made $34 million worldwide so far, so it's doing well.

And Toho has made some of the worst. you are looking at roughly a 33 film history versus 5 films.

For as good as GMO is...Toho did still make Godzilla's Revenge...

 

[Bayne]

Yeah that narrative only started after Shin Godzilla. Hell I remember after 2014, Goji fans, while lamenting the lack of fights, felt like Edwards took Godzilla more seriously than some of Toho's efforts. I even think 2014 and KOTM are better than 2/3rds of Toho's Godzilla library.

However I do admit, after the relative success of the MV Godzilla, and winning awards for Shin, I feel like Toho now approaches Godzilla as kind of a marquee brand in that they're approaching/fielding innovative ideas and giving the directors real money to make something special. This is like the Millenium era but with mega budgets in Japanese standards.

For me, Legendary's KotM is the third best Godzilla film after 54 and Minus One.

I did not like Shin much at all, of course, and I know I'm clearly the outlier in the franchise for that.

 

[Punisher_MAX]

I love all the Godzilla movies, but I can definitely agree that a lot of them, especially the Showa ones, are just BAD lol.

KotM is definitely in my top 5, it just nailed the Heisei feel it was going for.

2014 would've been top 5 if:

1. Cranston was in it more.
2. The amazing set up to some of the fights didn't happen off screen.
3. The human characters were better written.
4. Godzilla's design was closer to KotM's or even GvK.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

So I just came from my viewing and I am in awe. This is a modern day masterpiece and for me, this movie is only second to Gojira. I absolutely loved it.

In a perfect world, Ryunosuke Kamiki would get an Oscar nom. That man acted his ass off in this film and really nailed that character wrestling with survivor’s guilt and depression.

But yo this scene in particular:

Spoiler

When Noriko took the brunt of Godzilla’s atomic ray

I literally was like


A kaiju masterpiece made with only a measly 15 million dollars and still was visually breathtaking? Hollywood needs its ass kicked and should take notes.

 

[Drizzle]

Minus One was incredible. It's the best Godzilla movie I've seen. The praise wasn't kidding.

 

[Sithborg]

Good news seems to be is that theater chains seem to be extending the movie till next week. So, lets hope the WOM does its work. And it comes to those who don't have it yet.

 

[Silvermoth]

 

[SomeOldGuy]

Good news seems to be is that theater chains seem to be extending the movie till next week. So, lets hope the WOM does its work. And it comes to those who don't have it yet.

It picked up a PLF screening this week at one of my local theaters, too. Annoying as it didn’t have one last weekend and I definitely would have picked that over the standard showing, but better late than never I suppose.

 

[Drizzle]

One thing I loved about Minus One is that apart from the homages to the 1954 film there were also a few nods to Hollywood films.

Spoiler

That scene with Godzilla chasing the boat was an amazing homage to Jaws. This one is more of a stretch but I definitely got Star Wars vibes from the plan to defeat Godzilla in the third act with Shikishima being a savior not unlike Luke Skywalker destroying the Death Star.

Last but not least there seemed to be a couple of nods to Christopher Nolan. The tugboats showing up at the end to save the day was reminiscent of Dunkirk and the ol' last minute ejector seat trick that Shikishima used (and how it was foreshadowed) reminded me of The Dark Knight Rises.