'Godzilla Minus One' Shows Why American Theaters Should Look Beyond Hollywood
If Hollywood's major studios are going to keep stiffing multiplexes, then theater chains should be more aggressive about booking other countries' blockbusters
With $1.25 million on Thursday, Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla: Minus One was again the top-earning film in North America. With $17 million thus far, it is the biggest-grossing live-action Japanese film ever for North America, besting the $14.1 million cume of The Adventures of Milo and Otis. Its theatrical run has been extended at least through Dec. 14 – with an expansion to 2,540 theaters this weekend, as it made the Academy’s first shortlist for a Best Visual Effects Oscar nomination. Theaters everywhere are shouting “Oh my god... zilla!” Sorry/not sorry.
Meanwhile, GKIDS’ domestic release of Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron earned $2.4 million yesterday (including previews) and may win the weekend with a $10-$15 million Fri-Sun frame (will try to sneak out for this one later today, since my kids are disinterested losers). This marks the first time a foreign-language film has topped the daily or (possibly) weekend box office since Jet Li’s Hero was #1 for the first full week of its domestic debut, including an $18 million opening weekend, in the Fall of 2004. Godzilla Minus One was tops at the daily box office for Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and this entire next week could be a one-two punch from two acclaimed Japanese titles.
When I talk of demographically specific event films, I’m referring to anime melodramas like this weekend’s possible chart-topper The Boy and the Heron and Indian actioners like RRR alongside concert docs, faith-based dramas and grindhouse horror romps. Godzilla Minus One shows why distributors should look for more non-English crowd-pleasers.
A global crowdpleaser in any language
Godzilla Minus One, like most Toho-produced Godzilla movies since 2000, does not require prior knowledge of the 70-year-old franchise. It’s so buzzy and newbie-friendly that it may become a general audience consensus pick. It’s a stand-alone action drama that implicitly blends bits of Independence Day, Dunkirk and Jaws with a haunting score by Naoki Satō that recalls the somber elements of Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings compositions.
The post-World War II period piece combines those elements and kaiju-specific showmanship into a culturally specific package and surprisingly poignant crowdpleaser that does its own thing. One of the only differences between itself and a conventional high-quality Hollywood tentpole is that it’s in Japanese with English subtitles.
If Hollywood is going to continue, due to one reason (using the disruption caused by Covid to triple-down on short-sighted streaming goals) or another (a labor stoppage partially caused by a push to streaming as an all-eggs-in-one-basket revenue stream), then small studios and maybe even the theaters themselves should look to more foreign cinema.
Parasite director Bong Joon Ho said “Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” Parasite earned $54 million in North America and became the first foreign-language movie to win the Best Picture Oscar. It’s also a mean, nasty little thriller and a relentlessly entertaining piece of pulp fiction. Foreign films don’t have to be stereotypical arthouse films, nor do they have to be acclaimed classics to be modest theatrical successes.
Plenty to choose from…
China has had a regular slate of home-grown tentpoles at least since 2014. Not every Chinese blockbuster is suited for relative American success, I’d love to see Americans sample the three-hour, shot-on-Imax, $900 million-grossing China vs. America Korean War epic The Battle at Lake Changjin. The likes of The Mermaid, Moon Man (a loose riff on The Martian that’s begging for a Hollywood remake), the delightfully madcap Detective Chinatown trilogy and the Wandering Earth duology – to name just a few -- would play fine for curious American audiences.
There is some precedent for this, too. In 2012, France’s The Intouchables became – at the time -- the biggest-grossing non-English language movie of all time, earning $426 million worldwide, including $10 million in North America. The dramedy about a rich paraplegic and a down-on-his-luck healthcare assistant was remade in 2019 as the Bryan Cranston/Kevin Hart vehicle The Upside. In 2013, Lionsgate released the Eugene Derbez-led accidental parentage comedy Instructions Not Included to a whopping $44 million, still the fifth-biggest foreign-language earner and the top-earning Spanish-language film.
Even if that was a sky-high example from a much healthier theatrical environment, multiplexes would be thrilled if a film like that earned even $10 million in today’s ecosystem. If Hollywood can remake it with American movie stars, then American multiplexes can probably exhibit it.
Theaters cannot depend on Hollywood
The top three movies at the box office this weekend might be two Japanese epics and a Beyonce concert movie, which may say quite a bit about the paltry slate of Hollywood theatrical releases. It also presents a solution for multiplex chains understandably concerned about a continuing lack of major offerings from the major studios.
After all, last weekend’s four “demographically specific event films” -- namely AMC’s Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, Toho International’s Godzilla Minus One, Angel Studios’ The Shift and AA Films’ Animal, brought in $44 million just last weekend. The more theater chains are less do-or-die reliant on conventional franchise tentpoles, or even a pre-COVID volume of mainstream theatrical releases from the conventional studio system, the better.
Toho’s Godzilla may be a relentless destroyer of worlds, but for a content-starved theatrical marketplace, he’s (like his Hollywood/Legendary counterpart) a savior of the universe.