2 publishers · first seen Thu, 29 Oct 2026 07:10 UTC · updated Thu, 29 Oct 2026 08:58 UTC
Toho CEO Matsuoka Hiro said the company's successful North American release of 'Godzilla Minus One' was a coincidence rather than a strategy, following a suggestion from U.S. exhibitors that Toho consider anime due to a lack of films meeting audience demand. The film earned $57.1 million in North America, becoming the highest-grossing live-action Japanese film there and the biggest Stateside debut for a foreign film in 2023, with an opening weekend of over $11.4 million.
Matsuoka said colleagues were initially concerned about self-distributing the film in the U.S., where Toho had previously struggled, but the success brought profit directly to the company. Toho will release its next film, 'Godzilla Minus Zero', in Japan on November 3 and in North America on November 6 through its U.S. subsidiary GKIDS, which it acquired in 2024.
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