FAQ

All throughout the movie at various times

While the film had a decent opening in Japan, attendance numbers quickly dropped due to negative word of mouth. Both audiences and the original filmmakers responded negatively to the film. The suit actor for the 90s Godzilla films, Kenpachiro Satsuma, famously walked out of a screening. He said "It's not Godzilla. It doesn't have the spirit." Original suit actor Haruo Nakajima was also disappointed. Filmmaker Shunske Kaneko complained that military was able to defeat the monster. For the Japanese, the monsters are treated as symbolic forces of nature. Overall the film would make less that half of what Toho expected and was overshadowed by other Hollywood blockbusters. As one Japanese fan mentioned when asked by the Los Angeles Times, "our dreams were crushed".

The trademark breath weapon was considered early in the production process, but was ultimately replaced by what the filmmakers called "power breath" in the script—an intensely powerful blast of pressurized air that sometimes ignites inflammable elements (such as fuel) to devastating effect. According to Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, they did not want their Godzilla to have atomic breath, but the power breath was added as a last-second addition after fans were infuriated to hear Godzilla would not have his trademark ability. In the animated sequel to this film, Godzilla: The Series (1998), the son of the Godzilla from this film is given a green atomic breath, while the father is resurrected as a cyborg and now had a blue atomic breath.

Probably not.

While not an outright bomb, it did prefer below expectations. The film grossed 136,314,294 USD domestically, with a total of 379,014,294 USD worldwide. Godzilla was the third highest grossing film of 1998 worldwide (surpassed by Armageddon and Saving Private Ryan, which were respectively only 200 million and 100 million USD ahead of it). What is true is that the film did not meet the set box office expectations-it did not surpass The Lost World's record of 90 million USD in the opening weekend as the film studio wanted it to. "Godzilla" only grossed 44,047,541 USD. The film's domestic box office was smaller than expected-in the past domestic box office for US films was held in higher regard than worldwide gross. Ultimately Godzilla was actually not a box office bomb but simply a film that did not entirely meet the success it was expected to have.

But it was a disappointment, and the bad word got out, and the movie didn't have legs. It also underperformed in Japan, making less than half of what the studio expected.

Incidentally this film is also credited for the eventual bankruptcy of the Trendmasters toy company. Trendmasters had produced an extravagant toy line for the movie but retailers rejected them because they didn't sell. Trendmasters would close down less than three years after this films release.