Godzilla Minus Zero Takes Over Times Square Days Before Its R-Rated Debut
Bigger feet, bigger screen.
Godzilla just took over New York again, at least on a billboard. A giant ad for Godzilla Minus Zero lit up Times Square this afternoon, and the clip of it has already racked up tens of thousands of views (DiscussingFilm).
The timing makes sense. The sequel to Godzilla Minus One opens in North America on November 6, only a few days after it hits Japan (GKIDS). (Somewhere, a Times Square tourist is checking the sky just in case.) We covered the movie's Hollywood premiere and standing ovation earlier this week, so here's what's new since then.
When can you see Godzilla Minus Zero?
The movie opens in Japan on November 3, which is Godzilla Day and the anniversary of the 1954 original. GKIDS then releases it across North America on November 6, which makes this the first time the Japanese series has launched in both places almost at once (GKIDS).
If you can't wait, select IMAX theaters in the U.S., the U.K. and Mexico will hold early showings on November 3 (Wikipedia). It's also the first Japanese production ever filmed for IMAX, so the big screen is the way to go.
Why is it rated R?
The MPA gave Godzilla Minus Zero an R rating for "some violent content/bloody images," which makes it the first Godzilla movie ever rated R in the U.S. (Wikipedia). That's a big shift for a series that has mostly been rated PG or PG-13 here.
Takashi Yamazaki is back to write and direct, and he also supervised the visual effects again. Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe return as Koichi and Noriko Shikishima. The story is set in 1949, two years after the last film, when King Ghidorah starts attacking Japan and scientists come up with a plan to lure a regenerated Godzilla into the fight.
Are the reviews any good?
Very good so far. The movie world premiered at the New York Film Festival on September 26, and it holds a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes from 41 reviews, plus a 77 on Metacritic (Wikipedia). Critics mostly praise the effects and the monster fights. A few say the human story is looser than Minus One's and the ending is weaker.
Box office tracking has it opening to roughly $25 to $35 million in the U.S. and Canada. That would be a huge start for a Japanese Godzilla film, since Minus One made over $116 million worldwide in total and won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects (GKIDS).
My read is that the R rating is the most interesting part of all this. Minus One worked because it took the human cost seriously, and an R rating gives Yamazaki room to make Godzilla genuinely terrifying again. A Times Square ad this close to release tells you Toho and GKIDS know exactly how big this could get.
More movie news is right here.
Images are official stills from Godzilla Minus Zero, from Toho.
