Godzilla 2014's reception in Japan

[he-ba]

I'm very happy G did great in Japan. Some people said it was going to be a flop, but man oh man were they wrong. I'm so glad he will pass the $500,000,000 mark.

And G8GODZILLAGOD, nice signature!

[Underworld54]

At mid-day on Sunday Godzilla is performing incredibly well and should reach $8M for the opening weekend, $50M total and a $542M total worldwide finish is very much in play now. This is insane!

[kaijukurt]

At mid-day on Sunday Godzilla is performing incredibly well and should reach $8M for the opening weekend, $50M total and a $542M total worldwide finish is very much in play now. This is insane!

Great

[Vatarian]

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j299/ ... _48_10.jpg

Wow, I knew Toho was a higher end company in Japan, but I had no idea they were that successful. Kudos to them.

There's going to be an Attack on Titan live-action movie set for a 2015 date and its going to be produced by Toho. Given how popular that is in Japan right now, its going to make Toho a ton of cash.

*Screetches with pleasure*

[he-ba]

So does anybody know the opening weekend result in Japan?

[KJ Corp]

So does anybody know the opening weekend result in Japan?

The box office thread is your friend.

[Carcosa]

Not bad! To be honest i was not expecting it to pull this much.

Btw any awesome fan art from Japan?

[Plexton]

That was a very interesting read. While I respect the other viewpoints, I'm with Yuji Kaida (one of my all-time favourite artists, by the way); it's a real Godzilla movie that honours the franchise.

As for the issue of whether Godzilla is a hero or a villain...I've always seen him as neither. He's a force of nature, no more than the life-giving and life-taking ocean is a hero or a villain. That being the case, and since the team behind the 2014 film is obviously genre savvy, I imagine that relations between Godzilla and humanity might go sour in the second film. This also fits the 'superhero monomyth' story arc that many blockbuster trilogies have today; the second installment is usually when things are at their darkest (Spiderman gives up his mask, the Joker is on the loose, the Empire strikes back, etc.).

[Underworld54]

Godzilla fell hard in Japan this weekend, finished 5th.

05 (02) ¥181 million ($1.7 million), -47%, ¥2.05 billion ($20.1 million), Godzilla (Toho) Week 3

[ScouseGojira]

I liked that Godzilla was portrayed as a hero. Godzilla is a character that I've loved since being a very young child and some of the earliest films I watched along with Star Wars were the mid 70's Showa films. In those films he was the hero and that's what I loved, that giant monsters wanted to wreak havoc on us but we'd be OK because Godzilla will sort them out. I don't look to deep into him because at the end of the day he's a giant lizard who has atomic breath. I see this film as a dark knight interpretation of Showa Goji. That's not to say I don't appreciate the Heisei entries or the original, but I always prefer to see him portrayed as the protagonist, maybe misunderstood and destructive, but at the end of the day he's our only option.

[tymon]

I have to say, though, I still find it a bit inconsistent to decry this Godzilla film for not having as blatantly overt an anti-nuclear message as the first film, when virtually no Godzilla film made by Japan has done anything near that. Ditto that for the criticisms of Godzilla as something of a hero.

Exactly. This film, like most G-films, doesn't even attempt social relevance, so why critique that aspect? And with the hero thing, it's like...give me a break. Godzilla, like Batman, can be portrayed in many different ways - you'd think the Japanese would be the first to acknowledge this.

[Plexton]

I see this film as a dark knight interpretation of Showa Goji.

He's the kaiju this city deserves, but not the one it needs right now.