Godzilla Minus One has made over $50 million at the U.S. box office, no small feat for the Japanese monster movie from Toho International and the film’s director, writer, and VFX supervisor Takashi Yamazaki. Its success has led to a limited release of a black-and-white version of the film, cleverly called Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color, which will play in the U.S. for just one week.
The movie’s success has much to do with it being perhaps one of the best kaiju movies ever made. Our own Leah Schnelbach said the film was so good they couldn’t believe it, adding that it’s a movie where “honest engagement with PTSD is balanced perfectly with some of the most terrifying kaiju attacks I’ve ever seen.”
We can now see this film via a new lens (and you can see a snippet of this new lens in the teaser trailer above). According to Yamazaki, it was the original version’s success that paved the way for this black-and-white one. “I was very happy that the North American audience embraced Godzilla Minus One and gave us positive feedback such as ‘it was incredible!’ ‘it was scary!’ and ‘it made me cry!’ And now I am very pleased to be able to release a black-and-white version for North America as well,” he said in a statement. “Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color will bring a new and visceral experience to audiences and I hope they will tremble with a new kind of terror!”
Takashi also explained the process for making Minus Color. “Our colorist took the time and care to go through a very meticulous and complex process,” he said. “The black-and-white images make Godzilla look very realistic and documentary-like, which leads to even more fear. Even though we have seen Godzilla Minus One many times, we felt that something completely different appeared here—and it’s very scary! So this is not only for those who liked Godzilla Minus One but also those who are seeing it for the first time—they should definitely see this black-and-white version. Especially the scene at the beginning where Godzilla appears in the night—it is so terrifying that it made my knees shake!”
Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color will be in theaters for one week starting on January 26, 2024.
