Godzilla Minus One Film Gets Black-and-White Remaster for 1 Week

Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color runs in N. American theaters from January 26-February 1

TOHO International announced on Wednesday that it will screen the remastered black-and-white version of the Godzilla Minus One film titled Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color in North American theaters for one week, from January 26-February 1. The company streamed a trailer:

Image via Godzilla franchise’s Twitter account© TOHO CO., LTD.

“I was very happy that the North American audience embraced Godzilla Minus One,” said director, writer, and VFX supervisor Takashi Yamazaki. “And now I am very pleased to be able to release a black-and-white version for North America as well. Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color will bring a new and visceral experience to audiences.”

The film has earned an estimated US$49.74 million in the U.S. box office as of January 10 — its 41st day of screening — surpassing Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train, which earned US$49.5 million, as the second highest-grossing Japanese film in the U.S. of all time. The film is also now the fifth highest-grossing non-English language film in the U.S.

The film opened in U.S. theaters on December 1.

Godzilla Minus One opened in Japan on November 3, 2023 (“Godzilla Day”), which was the anniversary of the first Godzilla film’s November 3, 1954 release. The new film screened at The 2023 Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) as the closing film on November 1. Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color (Godzilla -1.0/C) premiered in Japan on January 12.

The film sold 648,600 tickets for 1,041,193,460 yen (about US$6.93 million) in its first three days in the Japanese box office. The film sold 14.7% more tickets and earned 22.8% more in its first three days than the last live-action Japanese Godzilla film, Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi’s Shin Godzilla, did in its first three days in 2016. As of Thursday, its 70th day of screening in Japan, the film sold 3.39 million tickets, to earn 5.21 billion yen (about US$35,964,520 million).

Ryunosuke Kamiki plays protagonist Kōichi Shikishima, and Minami Hamabe plays heroine Noriko Ōishi. (The two also lead the cast of NHK’s ongoing weekday morning series Ranman.) Other cast members include Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Andō, and Kuranosuke Sasaki.

The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Critics Choice Awards.

Godzilla Minus One was awarded by The Chicago Film Critics Association the Best Use of Visual Effects award on December 12, and was awarded the Best International Film by the Georgia Film Critics Association on January 6.

The film — along with The Boy and the Heron, Gran Turismo, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Suzume, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and YOSHIKI Under the Sky — are the anime films, or films otherwise related or connected to Japanese creators or franchises, that are eligible for nomination for Best Picture for the 2024 Oscars.

Godzilla Minus One is also shortlisted for the Visual Effects category, the first time a Japanese film has made the shortlist for the Visual Effects award at the Academy Awards. The Academy will announce the final nominees on January 23, and the awards ceremony will be held on March 10.

In Japan, the film is nominated in six different categories at the 78th Mainichi Film Awards: Japanese Film Awards/Japanese Film Excellence Award, Director Award for Takashi Yamazaki, Cinematography Award for Kozo Shibasaki, Art Award for Anri Jojo, Music Award for Naoki Satō, Sound Recording Award for Hisashi Takeuchi. Winners will be announced later this month, and the award ceremony will take place in February.

Sources: Deadline (Jill Goldsmith)