Godzilla Minus One Director Denies $15 Million Budget Claim

Godzilla Minus One train eating

The latest kaiju monster movie from Japan, Godzilla Minus One, has been a smash hit with fans both in Japan and in the West. Up until now, it’s been widely reported that the film was shot with a budget of approximately $15 million USD, but it seems like that might be the case.

During a panel at Tokyo Comic Con over the weekend, Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki disputed claims that the film was made on a $15 million budget. As reported by Twitter account Kaiju No. 14, Yamazaki responded to the claims of a high budget by saying “I wish it were that much.”

Twitter user Necro expanded on this, saying that the language used indicated that Yamazaki’s budget was lower than the stated figure, rather than the director lamenting over going over the stated budget.

Godzilla Minus One broke US box office records in its opening weekend, bringing in $11 million in the US market over three days and becoming the biggest foreign film opening since Jet Li’s 2002 film Hero. It was, up until this past weekend, also the biggest launch of a Japanese language film in the US, but Studio Ghibli’s The Boy and the Heron knocked it off its perch — though it’s worth noting many of the screenings for The Boy and the Heron would have been using its English cast.

Godzilla has been in a bit of a renaissance in recent years, with films for the legendary monster being produced in both Japan and the US — most of which have been pretty good. It’s also been getting all kinds of merch, tie-in media, and comic books, the strangest of which launched earlier this year and saw the Justice League facing off against King Kong and Godzilla.

Related: Review: The Boy And The Heron Is A Gorgeous Movie Made For Someone Else