Godzilla 1985
1985 1h 27m movie Film Japan

Godzilla 1985

“Prepare yourself: the greatest star of all has returned.”

Godzilla 1985 returned 5.9× its production cost, earning $4.1M against a $700K budget — one of the highest-return Japan films in our catalog.

Synopsis

“Prepare yourself: the greatest star of all has returned.”

Originally released in Japan as "The Return of Godzilla" in 1984, this is the heavily re-edited, re-titled "Godzilla 1985". Adding in new footage of Raymond Burr, this 16th Godzilla film ignores all previous sequels and serves as a direct follow-up to the 1956 "Godzilla King of the Monsters", which also featured scenes with Burr edited into 1954's "Godzilla". This film restores the darker tone of the original, as we witness the nuclear destruction of giant lizard terrorizing Japan.

The 1984–1986 Japan Window

91 Japan films released in this three-year window, ranked here by audience rating. Godzilla 1985 sits at position #52.

  1. Touch
    #1

    Touch

    ★ 9.2 · 1985

  2. The Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye
    #2

    The Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye

    ★ 8.6 · 1986

  3. Silver Fang
    #3

    Silver Fang

    ★ 8.6 · 1986

  4. Saint Seiya
    #4

    Saint Seiya

    ★ 8.5 · 1986

  5. Robotech
    #5

    Robotech

    ★ 8.5 · 1985

  6. Dengeki Sentai Changeman
    #6

    Dengeki Sentai Changeman

    ★ 8.3 · 1985

  7. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
    #7

    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

    ★ 8.3 · 1986

  8. Dragon Ball
    #8

    Dragon Ball

    ★ 8.2 · 1986

Titles With Overlapping Themes

Films and series that share thematic tags with Godzilla 1985. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.

Other Titles From Toho Pictures

The 1980s Japan Landscape

Catalog density by release year in the 1980s. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Godzilla 1985 premiered. 280 total titles in this decade from Japan.

'8017'8129'8221'8318'8418'8534'8639'8727'8833'8944

Budget & Box Office Efficiency

$700K
Budget
$4.1M
Revenue
$3.4M
Net Profit
5.9×
Return Ratio

At a 1h 27m runtime, production spent $8K per minute on screen and earned $47K per minute back.

Reception Benchmarks

6.6
TMDB Rating
148
Audience Reviews
Well Received
Critical Tier

Ranked #2,920 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (36th percentile by TMDB audience score).

Rating is -0.3 points below the Japan average of 6.9/10.

Among Japan Action productions specifically: #1,156 of 1,714 (top 67%).

Production Details

Primary Country Japan
All Production Countries United States of America, Japan
Original Language Japanese
Spoken Languages English, Russian
Production Companies Toho Pictures
Runtime 1h 27m
Release Date July 26, 1985
IMDb tt0087344

Themes & Motifs

  • japan
  • helicopter
  • monster
  • submarine
  • giant monster
  • train
  • scientist
  • gojira
  • reboot
  • kaiju
  • monster movie
  • godzilla

External Catalogs