The Godzilla Movies' Lengths

[Llante]

So, a question popped into my head one day. How long are the Godzilla movies in comparison to each other? To find out, I made the following chart. All runtimes are for the Japanese versions.

Movies, Theatrical Release Order, Runtime Order, Total Runtime (minutes)

Godzilla: Final Wars 28th 1st 125 min

Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla 21st 2nd 108 min

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 2 20th 2nd 108 min

Godzilla: 2000 23rd 4th 107 min

GMK 25th 5th 105 min

Godzilla vs Megaguirus 24th 5th 105 min

Godzilla vs Biollante 17th 7th 104 min

Godzilla and Mothra 19th 8th 103 min

Godzilla vs Destroyah 22nd 8th 103 min

Godzilla vs King Ghidorah 18th 8th 103 min

Return of Godzilla 16th 8th 103 min

King Kong vs Godzilla 3rd 12th 98 min

Gojira 1st 13th 96 min

Invasion of Astro Monster 6th 14th 94 min

Ghidorah 5th 15th 93 min

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. 27th 16th 91 min

Destroy All Monsters 9th 17th 89 min

Godzilla vs Gigan 12th 17th 89 min

Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla 26th 19th 88 min

Mothra vs Godzilla 4th 19th 88 min

Ebirah: Horror of the Deep 7th 21st 87 min

Son of Godzilla 8th 22nd 86 min

Godzilla vs Hedorah 11th 23rd 85 min

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 14th 24th 84 min

Terror of Mechagodzilla 15th 25th 83 min

Godzilla Raids Again 2nd 26th 82 min

Godzilla vs Megalon 13th 27th 81 min

All Monsters Attack 10th 28th 70 min

[GotengoXGodzilla]

Wow, I forgot how long Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla was.

Though, to be fair, outside of GFW, no Godzilla film is really long. Even GvsSG is hardly over an hour and a half. That's not that bad.

[Gojira1963]

I didn't know All Monsters Attack was so short! It seemed to last forever when I was a kid. Maybe they filled it with an hour of commercials.

[kpa]

There was generally some logic to the running times. Most of Toho's theatrical releases in the 1950s-60s were double features so the lead feature would often be around 90 minutes. From 1969-1975, the Godzilla films were released as part of the "Toho Champion Festivals" for kids... they would be shown with a co-feature and a number of shorts (cartoons, Ultraman episodes etc) so the length was cut to 80 minutes or so. With the relaunch in 1984, Toho went with an average running time 0f 105 minutes. Ticket sales went into decline in the early 2000s so Toho cut the budgets and running times starting in 2001-02. And the 50th anniversary film had a higher budget and longer time since Toho hoped it would be an event.

[Llante]

That is very interesting, kpa, and it explains a lot.

Here is another interesting tidbit: the Japanese version of GMK had a runtime of 105 minutes but the US version had a runtime of a mere 89 minutes.

By the way, the source for all of these runtimes is Toho Kingdom.

[Julia Bristow]

That is very interesting, kpa, and it explains a lot.

Here is another interesting tidbit: the Japanese version of GMK had a runtime of 105 minutes but the US version had a runtime of a mere 89 minutes.

By the way, the source for all of these runtimes is Toho Kingdom.

I believe the 89 min long US version of GMK was when the film was shown on TV on the SciFi Channel (not sure if this is true or not, someone feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken about this)

[Rody]

Well, "Syfy" did cut out several of the human death scenes; I remember that much.

[Tamura]

There was generally some logic to the running times. Most of Toho's theatrical releases in the 1950s-60s were double features so the lead feature would often be around 90 minutes. From 1969-1975, the Godzilla films were released as part of the "Toho Champion Festivals" for kids... they would be shown with a co-feature and a number of shorts (cartoons, Ultraman episodes etc) so the length was cut to 80 minutes or so. With the relaunch in 1984, Toho went with an average running time 0f 105 minutes. Ticket sales went into decline in the early 2000s so Toho cut the budgets and running times starting in 2001-02. And the 50th anniversary film had a higher budget and longer time since Toho hoped it would be an event.

Keith, what were the Japanese Godzilla double bills?

[Giga Kaiju]

I didn't know All Monsters Attack was so short! It seemed to last forever when I was a kid. Maybe they filled it with an hour of commercials.

When i was kid, Time flew by and me and my cousins had to told our grandpa to rewind it and put it
again and again.

[JAGzilla]

Here is another interesting tidbit: the Japanese version of GMK had a runtime of 105 minutes but the US version had a runtime of a mere 89 minutes.

Wow, really? I've only ever seen the US version. Is anything important cut from it?

[Tohosaurus]

That is very interesting, kpa, and it explains a lot.

Here is another interesting tidbit: the Japanese version of GMK had a runtime of 105 minutes but the US version had a runtime of a mere 89 minutes.

By the way, the source for all of these runtimes is Toho Kingdom.

I believe the 89 min long US version of GMK was when the film was shown on TV on the SciFi Channel (not sure if this is true or not, someone feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken about this)

Looks like you're right. I just looked at the back of my GMK DVD case and it says 105 minutes.

[Tamura]

That is very interesting, kpa, and it explains a lot.

Here is another interesting tidbit: the Japanese version of GMK had a runtime of 105 minutes but the US version had a runtime of a mere 89 minutes.

By the way, the source for all of these runtimes is Toho Kingdom.

Toho Kingdom also lists the US version of MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA as having a runtime of 88 minutes, whereas Boxoffice (a contemporary trade mag) reports a length of 90 minutes.

[kpa]

That is very interesting, kpa, and it explains a lot.

You're very welcome.

Here is another interesting tidbit: the Japanese version of GMK had a runtime of 105 minutes but the US version had a runtime of a mere 89 minutes.

That's incorrect. Syfy cut GMK (and some other Toho films) when they aired it, but Sony (who is the US distributor of GMK) released it uncut on DVD, streaming and pay cable TV.

Keith, what were the Japanese Godzilla double bills?

GODZILLA was apparently released solo, but all the other films through DESTROY ALL MONSTERS were double bills...

GRA/YAJI AND KITA’S COMEDY TRIP
KKvsG/ME AND ME (starring the Peanuts)
MvsG/OPERATION LION ANT
GTTHM/SAMURAI JOKER
MONSTER ZERO/YOUNG BEATS
SEA MONSTER/THIS IS TO BE YOUNG
SOG/HAPPINESS FOR YOU- SENTIMENTAL BOY
DAM/ATRAGON re-release

[Llante]

Thanks for clearing GMK up for us.

[Showa Gyaos]

Would've been cool as hell to see the double features at that time.