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“Godzilla Minus Zero” almost pulled of a Godzilla-times-three on its opening weekend, earning $31.6 million in North America to nearly triple the domestic debut of its 2023 predecessor “Godzilla Minus One.” With that Godzilla math, it destroyed the record for the biggest North American debut for a live-action foreign language film.

It was a crowning moment for the speciality distributor GKIDS. Founded in 2008, the label primarily built itself as a distributor of foreign language animated features, most notably with its acquisition of the North American distribution rights to the Studio Ghibli library. As a day-one employee of GKIDS, and its president since 2017, Dave Jesteadt has helped expand the stateside audience for subtitled features. After a 2025 acquisition by Toho, the Japanese film industry giant behind “Godzilla,” the reach of GKIDS is wider than ever with “Minus Zero,” which drew a box office debut that some studio tentpoles this year would envy.

“Anecdotally, so many people I know are like, ‘I took my dad this movie and he doesn’t go to any subtitle movies,’” Jesteadt told IndieWire. “Godzilla brings us together. If we’re spreading the gospel of foreign cinema, and Godzilla is a vehicle to get people to engage with great films and deep themes, then I’m all for it.”

After a flashy premiere at the New York Film Festival and a historic cume from IMAX and other premium large-format auditoriums, Jesteadt digs into how GKIDS helped “Minus Zero” come to America.

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

IndieWire: “Godzilla Minus One” was seen as a breakout success in 2023, with $57 million in North America. What lessons did GKIDS take away from Toho‘s release of “Minus One” in building toward this big opening for “Minus Zero”?

Dave Jesteadt: GKIDS joined the Toho Group in October 2024, but our story of working together on this began before that, back in 2023. GKIDS had “The Boy and the Heron” from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli in theaters just a week after “Godzilla Minus One” opened, which was being handled by Toho’s L.A. office at the time. We got to know that team because we had these two films in theaters, sort of competing for similar audience profiles.

In terms of lessons that both sides took, it’s that you can really drive conversation with theaters as a source of celebration and community. When we joined the Toho Group, we took in the team that worked on “Minus One.” We re-released “Shin Godzilla” in 2025 as a test for bringing modern Japanese “Godzilla” films to theaters. Then the planning for “Minus Zero” really began in terms of how we could build and improve on the audience that “Minus One” already found.

Did “Minus Zero” get a bigger marketing spend stateside? How did you consider which people to reach to expand the audience for a Japanese “Godzilla” film?

I can’t give a specific number, but I’d say that we’re very efficient and very mindful of how we can reach the audience in the most direct way possible. For this film, we have the great benefit of our colleagues at Toho International owning and operating Godzilla.com, overseeing merchandise licensing. They have direct communication with the “Godzilla” fan as they exist in America.

But the other goal is to reach, as “Minus One” did, an audience that hadn’t engaged in Japanese “Godzilla” films. We also balanced reaching that core “Godzilla” fan and making sure that they turn out with this desire to continue the story from “Minus One,” reminding people that these films from director Takashi Yamazaki really speak to broader feelings today. They have prestigious bona fides through playing film festivals and great critical reviews. We’re leading with the quality of the film, making people feel that this is a very safe choice — not just if you like spectacle, but that this is going to be one of the best films of the year.

The New York Film Festival premiere played as a flex, especially after a stretch where Hollywood would premiere summer blockbusters at Cannes, draw mediocre reviews, and then have to weather weeks of bad buzz for their expensive tentpoles. With the NYFF premiere, “Minus Zero” was positioned as a prestige object. Is that the aura you were trying to cultivate around it?

I think so. Godzilla has been one of the most famous characters in the world. There’s a big audience that you can potentially address. But the “Minus” franchise takes it into more realistic, human-centered stories. That differentiates it. It is a risk to go to a film festival; I think that has been pretty well-argued. It is a risk anytime you want to share something with the world early before you open, especially when you have such high hopes about how it’s going to go. On the other hand, this was a really important way to demonstrate confidence.

“Minus Zero” opened in more than 3,200 theaters, roughly 1,000 more theaters than “Minus One.” How much did you expand its presence in premium large-format auditoriums?

“Minus Zero” was the first Japanese production filmed for IMAX. That was a central part of the very first announcement and it was a defining part of the marketing campaign. IMAX mentioned it was the highest-indexed opening gross on IMAX screens for an opening weekend in the U.S. We had Godzilla Day on November 3, with IMAX early access screenings globally. So, PLFs definitely played a big presence: Imax, 4DX, Dbox, and others. That’s very unusual for a subtitled foreign film.

It speaks to the expectations for high quality that audiences brought. The PLF story is a way to reinforce production quality. Everyone is saying, “You have to see it in the biggest screen possible with the best sound.” I’ve seen many, many beautiful foreign films. They often end up playing circuits to audiences that are very passionate, but don’t have access to those kind of screens. So it’s a privilege to be able to play a film on the kind of screen that’s typically reserved for the biggest mainstream titles.

How long are you staying in IMAX and PLFs?

It depends on the market. We’re definitely here for the rest of this week. But as “The Odyssey” and other titles have demonstrated, there’s such draw to these moments. It can even create this quest to see something in multiple formats. But as we head into the Thanksgiving frame, the Hollywood competition is obviously huge. We’re realistic about that, even while we’re trying to encourage people to see it as soon and as often as they can.

The reported statistic that more than 70 percent of grosses came from PLFs seems a bit of a double-edged sword to me. It speaks to a high regard for the film among consumers, but it also might indicate that it has a specialized audience that may only want to see the movie in a premium format. Is that a consideration GKIDS takes in, particularly when other titles are taking those auditoriums in the coming weeks?

Obviously, PLFs are time-sensitive. It’s not just about performance, but also about new titles coming in. We’re up against the biggest studios in the world. I’m obviously thrilled that we were able to get so many and I’m thrilled that people saw it that way. I also encourage everyone to just see it in regular theaters too. The way that it was mastered and the way that director Yamazaki made the film is so you won’t have a bad experience in any house watching it. But with any of these core fandoms, there’s a lot of interest in seeing something “the right way.” I’m happy for that, but then the hope is they tell their friends and we continue the growth from there.

You’ve been with GKIDS since its inception and have played a major part in growing the American audience for foreign language cinema. What do you think has changed in the marketplace that has allowed a Japanese “Godzilla” film to now find a much broader audience in the West than it could find before?

There’s no doubt that the quality of the films really helps. “Minus One” was a fantastic film. It won the Oscar for visual effects and became an audience darling. But really, the thing that’s changed the most is that younger generations are much more open to subtitled and foreign cinema than they would have been 10 or 20 years ago. We’ve entered an age of opportunity where what can constitute a hit film is really broadening. That gives me a lot of optimism compared to negative stories about the overall economics of the industry. GKIDS has been bringing subtitled animated movies and anime to audiences for almost 20 years and seeing that audience grow naturally. At first, dubs were essential; now, they’re not.

Though GKIDS isn’t producing these films, I’m curious if, as a distributor, you think that Japanese productions like “Minus Zero” are now being developed and produced with more of a global audience in mind.

The films are still intrinsically Japanese and are basically impossible to separate from the cultural tradition of “Godzilla” in Japan, as well as the overall Japanese film industry. On the other hand, there’s no doubt that the property has the ability to reach a global audience. The popularity with the “Minus” series is really a focus on quality, and how its storytelling is rooted in a time and a place that feels authentically Japanese. Although it deals with a post-war moment in Japanese history, it is incredibly contemporary in terms of the thoughts and preoccupations of a global audience.

So I don’t think there’s necessarily a change in focus. I would say that the audience and the director are in a much more direct conversation. On social media now, everything is auto-translated. You can see real-time active conversation between Japanese fans and viewers commenting about the film with American or Spanish or European audience. Everyone is able to share their thoughts or opinions about some of these themes in a way that brings local perspective to the table. By creating something that feel like it’s created for a specific audience, ironically, you end up making it feel more universal, just because it feels more lived in.

Do you think we are headed to a world where a Japanese “Godzilla” film can outgross a Western “Godzilla” film in North America?

I don’t really think about that. I’m very competitive against a lot of people, but the “Godzilla” franchise has benefited from having a lot of flavors to it. By building that big tent, it ends up being a character that has endured.

“Godzilla Minus Zero” is now in theaters.