From The Nerdist

Well, that was quite quick. After being asked about the possibility of a sequel from the very first press screening, and the answer being “we’ll have to see how the first one does,” it appears that Legendary and Warner Bros. are sufficiently happy to begin work on a sequel to Godzilla, which is the worldwide box office #1 this weekend.

The news was reported to Deadline on Sunday – after raking in over $100 million worldwide this weekend, and a staggering $93 million here in the States (the biggest opening of the year so far), Godzilla seems to have proven enough of a hit to warrant venturing into those monster-filled waters again. The sequel plans were in the works already, of course, but this weekend proved its viability.

Director Gareth Edwards has said, were he to do a sequel, he’d employ the same restraint as he did with the first, which did a masterful job of making us wait for more than a fleeting glimpse of the 350-foot dinosaur thing. With many fans wishing for more of the giant monster in the first film, the announcement of a second go-round for the massive monster-fighting monster is surely music to their ears. What we all want to know, however, is whether any of Toho studios’ other famous monsters will appear in a Godzilla sequel. Perhaps Mothra or Rodan? Maybe in a couple of years, a full remake of Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster will be in the cards, which was The Avengersof kaiju team-ups.

From SuperHeroHype

One of the more anticipated movies of the summer, Legendary Pictures' reboot of the classic Toho Studios movie monster Godzilla (Warner Bros.) roared into theaters on Thursday night with a killer showing of $9.3 million from Thursday previews. That was added into the Friday gross of $38.5 million, which was on par with some of the other recent openers, but even with a slight drop on Saturday, it was still able to become the third movie to open with over $90 million in the past two months–following Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Amazing Spider-Man 2–with an estimated $93.2 million take for the weekend.

Overseas, Godzilla had the biggest international opening of the year, bringing in $103 million in 64 markets with 3D screenings making up a whopping 51% of its weekend gross. Combined with the domestic earnings, Godzilla has already earned $196.2 million worldwide.

$14.1 million of Godzilla's domestic opening weekend came from its 352 IMAX screenings, the third-best showing for the format after last year's Iron Man 3 and the previous summer's The Avengers, while doing better in the format than last summer's Star Trek Into Darkness. Internationally, IMAX accounted for $7.5 million of Godzilla's grosses on 186 screens.

From Variety

The Internet rumor that the Japanese see the new made-in-America “Godzilla” as “super-sized” and “too fat” is all wrong, Toho would like you to know.

“It’s just a small number of people saying that,” explains Toho PR rep Yosuke Ogura. “The number of people here who are OK with the new ‘Godzilla’ is a lot larger.”
Toho is the Japanese distributor of the film, and owns the underlying Godzilla property.

He favorably compares the look of the title monster in the Gareth Edwards pic to that in the 1998 Roland Emmerich “Godzilla,” which he frankly labels a “disaster.”
“This new Godzilla is closer in spirit to the original,” he says of the Legendary Entertainment-produced film. “If you just see the trailer, you might get the idea that he’s ‘fat’ or whatever, but once you see the whole film, as I have, I think your opinion will change.”

Local fan opinion is more diverse than earlier negative media reports implied.
A glance at recent comments on the popular 2channel message board site reveals more anticipation than snark, now that additional info about the film has appeared, including early reviews.
“Gareth Edwards has made a full-bore, completely new ‘Godzilla’ that will be accepted around the world,” opines one poster. “I think it will be an immortal masterpiece.”

Fat jokes are nowhere in sight.

Japan, however, will be the last major market to view the latest Hollywood iteration of the iconic franchise that Toho launched in 1954 with the first of 28 made-in-Japan Godzilla pics: The studio plans to release “Godzilla” on July 25, nearly six weeks after its U.S. bow, but not out of any uncertainty about its success.
“That’s just the best timing,” explains Ogura. “It’s when big movies are released here.”

One recent example is the Hayao Miyazaki animation “The Wind Rises,” a Toho release that opened on July 20, 2013, and became the year’s highest-earning pic with $117 million.
One reason for this timing is that Japanese schools do not begin their summer break until mid-July. But Toho, Ogura emphasizes, does not consider “Godzilla” kiddie fare. “Of course, children will be able to see it – it’s rated for all ages,” he says, “but our primary target is adults.”

Toho is still sorting out its release strategy, though Ogura says the number of screens “will be as large as we can make it.”
One measure of comparison is the 454 screens Toho secured for “The Wind Rises.” “It will be in that range,” Ogura says.
Toho has not yet announced a B.O. target, but given the film’s $93 million weekend opening in the U.S., Toho can probably look forward to strong returns.

Its own risk is relatively limited, however, since it is not a production partner on “Godzilla,” a co-production of Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures.
As part of its celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the original “Godzilla”’s debut, Toho plans to release a digitally re-mastered version of the 1954 Ishiro Honda classic on June 7 at theaters nationwide.

Meanwhile, since March, Nihon Eiga Satellite Broadcasting, a Japanese movie specialty channel, has been broadcasting all 28 Toho-produced Godzilla pics as a lead-up to the July Japan release of “Godzilla,” including a 24-hour all-Godzilla lineup on May 5, during the Golden Week holiday. Also on the channel’s line-up are the 1998 Emmerich pic and “Godzilla, King of the Monsters,” the 1956 reworking of the original film for the U.S. market starring Raymond Burr.

It seems different sites in different countries are starting to post images (wallpapers) of Godzilla in different cities, so far we have Rome, Hong Kong, and Paris, all have the same feel as the San Francisco one, images below.

While I'm not going to post the whole end credits, they are very long, I'm posting the cast portion *warning possible spoilers* they list Akira Takarada as a Japanese Immigration Agent. It has been said that his role was cut from the film so is this an error, is he getting credited even though he is not in it, will his role be put back in for the Blu-ray/DVD releases, contractual obligation for the studio? Guess we will find out.

Cast

Ford Brody: AARON TAYLOR-JOHNSON
Young Ford: CJ ADAMS
Dr. Ishiro Serizawa: KEN WATANABE
Joe Brody: BRYAN CRANSTON
Elle Brody: ELIZABETH OLSEN
Sam Brody: CARSON BOLDE
Vivienne Graham: SALLY HAWKINS
Sandra Brody: JULIETTE BINOCHE
Admiral William Stenz: DAVID STRATHAIRN
Captain Russell Hampton: RICHARD T. JONES
Sergeant Tre Morales: VICTOR RASUK
Lieutenant Commander Marcus Waltz: PATRICK SABONGUI
Jump Master: JARED KEESO
Bomb Tracker: LUC RODERIQUE
HALO Jumper JAMES PIZZINATO
PO#1 MartinezCATHERINE LOUGH HAGGQUIST
Boyd: ERIC KEENLEYSIDE
Mine Team Member: PRIMO ALLON
Lead Guerrilla Fighter: GEORGE ALLEN GUMAPAC JR.
Takashi: KEN YAMAMURA
Stan Walsh: GARRY CHALK
Hayato: HIRO KANAGAWA
Nervous: EngineerKEVAN OHTSJI
Team Member #1: KASEY MAZAK
Team Member #2: TERRY CHEN
Team Member #3: MAS MORIMOTO
Captain Freeman: JAMES D. DEVER