GODZILLA MINUS ONE Continues to Impressively Stomp Up the Box Office!
Toho International’s Godzilla Minus One continues to blow up at the box office! So far it has grossed $50.9 million in its seventh week in theaters in the United States.
It has become Japan’s highest-grossing Japanese language film in live-action and animation. It’s also now the fifth highest-grossing non-English film at the US box office, and it’s expected to take in over $100 million worldwide when all is said and done.
That’s so cool, and it makes me so happy! I just loved this movie so much and seeing it continue to succeed at the box office brings such gratification.
While, the film has been a success and Toho is expected to follow it up with a sequel, they are not in a rush to make that next movie. Producer Minami Ichikawa talked about the future of Godzilla and he said: "I don't feel the need to rush the next live-action film. Good films are all about quality. We want great ideas, an excellent script, a talented director, and the right cast to work on it carefully.”
I hope when they do make it, they bring director Takashi Yamazaki back to direct it. When talking about a sequel, he said: "My honest feelings, I would like to see a continuation of those people's story. If I could make it [A Godzilla Minus One sequel], I would like to make a movie that involves what happens to them after that.”
The director previously explained that he laid the foundation for a sequel and how the open ending of Godzilla Minus One can lead to the next chapter of the story: "Godzilla is both a monster and a god. Godzilla is the Tatari-gami that appears in Princess Mononoke. After all, if you really think about it, isn't it strange that the thing awakened by America's nuclear tests is going to attack Japan? However, if you think of it as the Tatari-gami, it makes sense. A story about everyone working together to quell an attack by the Tatari-gami."
He went on to say: "Godzilla was born as a result of an American nuclear test and yet it was created in Japan. Isn't it incredibly absurd that this happens? However, I believe that Japanese people sense they must accept this and consider it a curse. The Tatari-gami from Princess Mononoke also comes to a village he has no connections with, messes it up, and leaves behind a curse. That's how I felt after making this film. I felt that making a Godzilla movie was a divine ritual. The ritual [gathers] the anxieties of the world at the time and summons them as a cursed deity which must be appeased."
The movie is set in Japan 1945-1947. “After the war, Japan has been reduced to zero. Godzilla appears and plunges the country into a negative state. Against the most desperate situation in the history of Japan, how — and with whom — will Japan stand up to it?”