Godzilla Minus Zero Opening Weekend Box Office Breaks A Foreign-Language Film Records
Published Nov 8, 2026, 12:15 PM EST
Tomas Franzese is the Weekend News Editor at Polygon, following and reporting on the latest goings-on in the gaming and entertainment spaces. During the week, you can find him working on Remastered, his newsletter about video game history and retro gaming, or contributing to GameSpot and other publications. Previously, Tomas was the Gaming Segment Lead at XDA and a Staff Writer at Digital Trends.
Godzilla Minus Zero had a great first weekend in theaters
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Godzilla Minus Zero had a strong opening weekend, grossing more at the domestic box office than any live action foreign-language film before it. On top of that, a higher percentage of people sought out premium screens, like IMAX, to watch it even more than they did for The Odyssey earlier this year.
Deadline's reporting highlights that Godzilla Minus Zero is estimated to have grossed $32 million. Although American-made Godzilla movies have made more during their first weekend in theaters, this is a very impressive feat for a foreign-language film, as they rarely do this well at the domestic box office unless they're connected to an anime. As mentioned, this opening is record-breaking for a live-action one.
Godzilla Minus Zero's performance also shows the value of making movies that people want to see on the biggest screen possible, as around 74% of its gross came from IMAX or other premium large format screens. In comparison, The Odyssey got a lot of attention because around 54% of its opening weekend gross came from PLF screens. 2026 has certainly shown that there's demand for blockbusters that embrace that opulent style of filmmaking beyond a typical superhero movie.
What were the weekend's highest-grossing films?
Outside of Godzilla Minus Zero, the animated Cat in the Hat movie had a fairly underwhelming $20 million opening weekend, while You Can See Everything had an impressive hold week-over-week that makes a $100 million domestic gross more possible. That said, we do still seem to be in the quiet before the storm as new blockbuster Hunger Games, Avengers, and Dune movies hit theaters before the end of the year
Per Deadline, these were the top ten highest-grossing movies of the weekend:
- Godzilla Minus Zero: $32 million
- Cat in the Hat: $20 million
- Drummer Boy: $8.8 million
- You Can See Everything: $7.8 million
- Ramayana: Rise of a Legend: $7.3 million
- Clayface: $7.1 million
- Wildwood: $6.8 million
- Wild Horse Nine: $4.5 million
- Wicker: $3.2 million
- Jimmy: $2.2 million
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