Summary
The 10highest-grossingkaijumoviesof all time have accumulated more than $4 billion between them. Literally translated from Japanese,kaijumeans “strange beast,” but the term has been predominately applied to movies where giant monsters wreak havoc. The roster features a new addition in 2024 after theGodzilla x Kong: The New Empirebox officerose to become the highest-grossing movie in the Monsterverse as of June 2024.
Although the Top 10 are all English-language productions,thekaijugenre would not exist without the cinematic contributions of Japan. TheGodzillafranchisein particular is perhaps the most iconic and influentialkaijufranchise in the world, and the original 1954 movie is frequently credited with kickstarting the genre as it is currently known, though other giant monster movies such asKing KongandThe Beast from 20,000 Fathomspreceded it to the screen. Japan’sGodzilla Minus OneandShin Godzillawere also enormous worldwide hits in their own right, though they fell just outside the Top 10.
Other prominent and high-grossingkaijumovies such asSuper 8,Cloverfield, andThe Hostare likewise not included due to their relative grosses, while the movies in theJurassic ParkandThe Megfranchises were considered ineligible due to the fact that their central creatures are large prehistoric animals rather than “monsters” or mundane animals that have grown to enormous size.
ThePacific Rimfranchise, which began withthe original 2013 movie helmed by Guillermo del Toro, is greatly indebted to thekaijugenre. In fact, the giant monsters at the center of the story are called, simply, Kaiju. The giant mechs called Jaegers that are used to fight the Kaiju are more commonly found in the Japanesetokusatsugenre (noted for its heavy special effects), making this something of a mashup, though they have also been included in manykaijumovies as well.
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Pacific Rim is all about giant robots, Jaegers, fighting Kaiju, and has crafted some incredible fight scenes featuring the two duking it out.
The 2018 sequelPacific Rim: Uprisingfailed to earn a profit at the box office because its roughly $175 million budget likely would have required it to gross more than $350 million just to break even.This is probably why it has so far not earned a third theatrical installment, though its $290.9 million gross is still enough to make it the tenth highest-grossingkaijumovie of all time.
Pacific Rim: Uprisingis available to stream on Netflix, Star+ and Prime Video.
1998’sGodzillawas the first American production to feature the titular dinosaur-esquekaiju, though 22 movies in the franchise had already been produced in Japan by the time it was released, cementing the monster’s iconic status. Teaming blockbuster filmmaker Roland Emmerich,who was then fresh off the alien invasion disaster movieIndependence Day, with an ensemble cast led by Matthew Broderick, the movie was poised for blockbuster success.
the movie’s worldwide gross of $379 million, not adjusted for inflation, is still widely considered a disappointment
While it remains the ninth highest-grossingkaijumovie of all time and did turn a profit during its theatrical run, the movie’s worldwide gross of $379 million, not adjusted for inflation, is still widely considered a disappointment. As was the case withPacific Rim: Uprising 20 years later,its undoing was its massive budget, as the project cost roughly $150 million to produce and an additional $80 million to market.
After the theatrical misfire of 1998’sGodzilla, Hollywood wouldn’t attempt to release a new movie featuring the monster for a full decade and a half.The next time that happened was 2014’sGodzilla, which spawned theMonsterverse franchise, an interconnected universe that now includes five movies and two television shows includingKong: Skull Island,Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and the 2014 movie’s first direct sequel, subtitledKing of the Monsters.
Godzilla: King of the Monstersgrossed $387.3 million, making it the lowest-grossing entry in the franchise. Just likeGodzilla(1998) andPacific Rim: Uprising,it seems unlikely that this particular installment made its money back, as it cost roughly $200 million to produce, which likely pushed its break-even point to $400 million without factoring in marketing costs. However, this didn’t prevent the franchise from expanding and producing more entries that handily outperformed the 2019 installment.
The originalPacific Rim, directed by Guillermo del Toro, introduced the term “Kaiju” to a wider international audience.By combining elements of some of the filmmaker’s favorite international genres from his childhood, the movie - which stars Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, and Ron Perlman - acts as something like a blockbuster primer inkaijuandtokusatsufilmmaking.
Pacific Rimmade $411 million at the worldwide box office, marking it as the seventh highest-grossingkaijumovie of all time despite underperforming in North America.In addition to being the first movie in the Top 10 that is considered a proper theatrical success, though not by a huge margin, it remains the highest-grossing movie ever directed by Guillermo del Toro, with his 2017 Best Picture winnerThe Shape of Watertrailing significantly behind with a worldwide gross of $196 million.
Pacific Rimis available to stream on PrimeVideo and Max.
Of the titles on this list,Rampageis the one that perhaps seems the least like a properkaijumovie. However,the video game adaptation starring Dwayne Johnson bears many hallmarks of the genre. This includes its central monsters, which are real-life animals that have been exposed to a pathogen which causes them to mutate into giant beasts whose titular rampage threatens the city of Chicago.
its theatrical gross of $428.1 million marks it as the sixth highest-grossingkaijumovie ever
Between its production budget and marketing costs,Rampagecame with a roughly $260 million price tag. However, its theatrical gross of $428.1 million marks it as the sixth highest-grossingkaijumovie ever.At the time of writing, it is also the third highest-grossingDwayne Johnson moviethat wasn’t already part of an ongoing film franchise likeJumanjiorFast & Furious, behind justSan Andreas($474 million) and Disney’sMoana($687.2 million).
Rampageis available to stream on PrimeVideo and Max.
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The fourth installment in the Monsterverse,Godzilla vs. Kong, marked the first time that the franchise’s iterations of the titular titans interacted with one another since the former debuted in the 2014Godzillaand the latter debuted in 2017’sKong: Skull Island.Just likePacific Rim, it embodied an “East meets West” approach to thekaijugenre, bringing together an iconic Hollywood monster with Japan’s biggestkaijuexport.
the fact that it was able to become the eighth highest-grossing movie of the year worldwide and the fifth highest-grossingkaijumovie ever is still a major achievement
Godzilla vs. Kongonly grossed $470.1 million theatrically, making it the second lowest-grossing installment in the Monsterverse.However, this figure is compromised because the movie was released into a pandemic-depressed box officemarketplace in early 2021, with a simultaneous day-and-date streaming release on HBO Max (now Max) during the first month of its run. With those limitations, the fact that it was able to become the eighth highest-grossing movie of the year worldwide and the fifth highest-grossingkaijumovie ever is still a major achievement.
Godzilla(2014) is the movie that started it all for the Monsterverse. It was the first time that America had attempted to bring the titularkaijuback to the big screen since the lukewarm box office take of the 1998 movie of the same name. In the meantime, six more Japanese installments in the franchise had been released, from 1999’sGodzilla 2000: Millenniumthrough 2004’sGodzilla: Final Wars.
Godzilla(2014) proved to be a major hit in a way that the Roland Emmerich project didn’t,eventually becoming the fourth highest-grossingkaijumovie of all time and launching a major universethat is now the 91st highest-grossing movie franchise of all time. The original movie, which featured a relatively conservative $160 million budget, went on to gross $529.1 million, also becoming the 14th highest-grossing movie of the year worldwide.
King Kong, a remake of the original 1933 classic of the same name, was Peter Jackson’s first directorial project since the conclusion of the originalLord of the Ringstrilogyin 2003.Using the state-of-the-art motion-capture technique that brought Gollum(Andy Serkis) to life in 2002’sThe Two Towersand 2003’sReturn of the King, Jackson reteamed with Serkis to transform the actor into the titular giant ape.
it grossed two and a half times its record-breaking $207 million budget
Audiences flocked toKing Kong, though they didn’t make it a hit at the level of theLord of the Ringsmovies, which had grosses ranging fromFellowship of the Rings' $884 million toReturn of the King’s $1.16 billion. Nevertheless, it grossed two and a half times its record-breaking $207 million budget, making it the third highest-grossingkaijumovie ever at the time of writing, even without adjusting for inflation.
King Kongis available to stream on PrimeVideo.
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The first installment in theKing Kongfranchise since the 2005 Peter Jackson movie, the Monsterverse’sKong: Skull Islandtakes place in the early 1970s and presents an alternate origin story for the titular ape. So far,Kong is the only major pre-existing American monster movie icon to be front and center in the franchise, which otherwise features iconic Japanesekaijusuch as Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan.
Perhaps partially because of this novelty, Kong: Skull Island became a solid hit. It grossed $568.6 million against its $185 million budget, becoming the 17th highest-grossing movie of the year, ahead of the competing CGI-heavy ape movieWar for the Planet of the Apes, which came in at No. 20 with $490.7 million. The 2017 movie remained the highest-grossing installment in the Monsterverse for seven years until it was recently surpassed byGodzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empireis the fifth theatrical installment in the Monsterverse and a direct sequel toGodzilla vs. Kong. The movie became a theatrical successin spite of the danger of the franchise oversaturating the market in early 2024, as it premiered just two and a half months after the season 1 finale of Apple TV+’s Monsterverse showMonarch: Legacy of Monsters.
it’s perhaps no surprise thatGodzilla x Kongis the king of the highest-grossing kaiju movies
Considering the fact that every Monsterverse movie is represented in the Top 10, it’s perhaps no surprise thatGodzilla x Kongis the king of thehighest-grossing kaiju movies. Its gross could continue to climb higher than $570 million, though at the time of writing its theatrical run is nearing its end. As it stands, it is the biggest hit of the franchise and of the genre in addition to boasting a slightly tighter budget of roughly $150 millionthat has likely allowed it to be even more profitable thanKong: Skull Islanddespite their grosses still being largely comparable.
