Godzilla Minus One Crosses $100 Million Worldwide Box Office Milestone Ahead of Release of Black-and-White Version of Critically Acclaimed Film

Godzilla Minus One has passed the $100 million mark at the worldwide box office, ahead of a new limited black-and-white release.

The critically acclaimed monster movie from Toho Studios, which released the original 1954 Godzilla film, was directed by Takashi Yamazaki, 59, who also wrote the screenplay and collaborated with Kiyoka Shibuya on the visual effects.

Godzilla Minus One was released in Japan on November 3 by Toho to celebrate the franchise's 70th anniversary, and its international subsidiary later released the film in North America on December 1.

The film debuted at number one at the Japanese box office and has become, according to sources, the highest-grossing Japanese live-action film in North American history. Collider.

Toho also just announced that a black-and-white version titled Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color will hit North American theaters for a week starting January 26.

Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color was released in Japan on January 12.

The black and white version is an attempt to give the horror film more of a documentary style while paying tribute to the 1954 film.

Godzilla Minus One has received widespread acclaim and is considered one of the best films of 2023 and the best Godzilla film ever made.

It has a score of 98 among critics on Rotten Tomatoes and an identical score of 98 with audiences.

The film stars Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando and Kuranosuke Sasaki and a Godzilla terrorizing post-war Japan.

Forbes named the film “One Of 2023's Greatest Films,” while The New York Times noted that “Japan's famed monster franchise returns with a hunger for destruction, but also a remarkably sober outlook.”

Verge said, “As much as the film is, it's worthy of standing alongside the original as a seminal piece of the Toho canon,” while Den Of Geek shared, “Godzilla Minus One remains convinced that people working together be even stronger. and gives us compelling, fully drawn human characters to make us believe it.”

In the original 1954 classic, directed by Ishiro Honda, a man in a rubber suit sweated and trampled miniatures from the cityscape to tell the story of a prehistoric creature accidentally brought to life by radiation from nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean.

Godzilla is shown attacking Japan in the original 1954 film from Toho Studios

Godzilla Minus One stars Minami Hamabe and Ryunosuke Kamiki and director Takashi Yamazaki will be seen in Tokyo in October

Hamabe is shown in a scene from Godzilla Minus One, set in Japan around World War II

Godzilla attacked a train and chewed on it in a scene from Godzilla Minus One

The 1954 film also saw a train attacked by Godzilla

Godzilla Minus One has a score of 98 among critics on Rotten Tomatoes and an identical 98 score from audiences

The monster in Godzilla Minus One consists entirely of computer graphics and the film was produced on a budget of approximately $10 million.

Yamazaki, who has worked with famed author Juzo Itami, has won Japan's equivalent of an Oscar for 'Always – Sunset on Third Street', a heartwarming family drama set in the 1950s, and 'The Eternal Zero', about Japanese fighter pilots.

What got him interested in filmmaking as a child was Steven Spielberg's 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'. He was so captivated by the film that he couldn't stop talking about it, he said in November, following his mother around for hours, even while she was cooking.

Star Wars, the franchise created by George Lucas and another science fiction favorite, evokes many Asian themes that make him the perfect director for a sequel, Yamazaki said.

“I am confident that I can create a very special and unique Star Wars,” he said.