Godzilla Minus Zero opens to an estimated $31.6 million. That’s nearly triple Minus One.

Godzilla Minus Zero is No. 1 for the November 6–8 weekend. The Numbers currently lists a $31.61 million domestic opening from 3,254 theaters, about $9,714 per theater. Those Sunday figures are studio estimates until the final weekend report locks. Even with that caveat, the debut already defines the weekend: a Japanese-language Toho film just outran Warner Bros.’ The Cat in the Hat, which opened to about $20.5 million from a wider 4,003-theater footprint.

Put it next to Godzilla Minus One and the scale jump is obvious. The 2023 film opened December 1 through Toho International in 2,308 theaters and took $11.42 million for a third-place finish behind Beyoncé’s Renaissance concert film and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. It later finished around $57.1 million domestic and became the highest-grossing Japan-produced Godzilla title worldwide. Minus Zero arrived with nearly a thousand more theaters, a GKIDS release after Toho acquired the distributor in 2024, and an opening roughly 2.8 times larger than its predecessor’s first weekend. Per-theater it also hit harder: about $9,714 against Minus One’s roughly $4,948.

The money is concentrated on the biggest screens. IMAX took about $12.7 million, or 40 percent of the domestic opening, on a production Toho and GKIDS billed as the first Japanese film filmed for IMAX. Premium large formats overall account for about 74 percent of ticket sales. Audiences graded it an A on CinemaScore, matching Minus One, and critics have it at about 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The MPA rated the sequel R for some violent content and bloody images, the first R for the 72-year franchise after Minus One’s PG-13.

Japan opened first on November 3, Godzilla Day and the anniversary of the 1954 original, with about $8.7 million so far in the home market on The Numbers’ early tally. The near-simulrelease across more than 100 territories is a first for a Japan-produced Godzilla film. International adds another $31.39 million in weekend reporting, for about $63 million worldwide before Monday finals. Takashi Yamazaki wrote, directed, and led VFX again, with Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe back as Koichi and Noriko. The story picks up in 1949, two years after Minus One, with Japan still rebuilding when a new threat lands.

For North American readers who found Minus One later on a streamer, this weekend is what a full theatrical push looks like. Monday will tidy the estimate, but the jump from 2023’s debut is already clear.