American film by Gareth Edwards
Godzilla is a 2014 American monster film directed by Gareth Edwards. Produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is a reboot of Toho's Godzilla franchise, the first film in Legendary's Monsterverse franchise, and the 30th film in the Godzilla franchise. The film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, and Bryan Cranston. In the film, an American soldier attempts to return to his family while caught in the crossfire of an ancient rivalry between Godzilla and two parasitic monsters known as MUTOs.
An early iteration of the project began in 2004 under executive producer Yoshimitsu Banno as a short IMAX 3D film, but was transferred to Legendary in 2009 to be redeveloped as a full-length feature. The film was announced in March 2010 and Edwards was announced as the director in January 2011. Principal photography began in March 2013 in the United States and Canada and ended in July 2013.
Godzilla was theatrically released on May 16, 2014. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the direction, visual effects, music, cinematography, respect to the source material, and Cranston's performance, but criticized the script, characters, and Godzilla's insufficient screen time. The film was a box office success, grossing $529.1 million worldwide against a production budget of $160 million, print and advertisement costs of $100 million, and a break-even point of $380 million. The film's success prompted Toho to produce a reboot of their own and released Shin Godzilla in 2016; Toho has since produced several follow-ups. Likewise, Legendary proceeded with sequels of their own, culminating in a shared cinematic franchise.
A sequel, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, was released on May 31, 2019.
Plot summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.