Fifth Season Sells Japanese Blockbuster ‘Godzilla Minus One’ to Broadcasters Across the Globe

Fifth Season has inked a slew of global broadcast and digital sales deals for the Japanese blockbuster Godzilla Minus One (2023), the latest installment in the Godzilla franchise. Fifth Season executed the sales on behalf of its strategic investment partner Toho International, which produced the hit Kaiju film. The deals were unveiled Monday on the first day of Hong Kong’s Filmart content market. 

The deals closed by Fifth Season include ones with Talpa TV (for the Netherlands), peppermint anime Gmbh (for Germany and German-speaking Europe), TVN (Poland), RTL (Hungary), TV Azteca (Mexico), SVT (Sweden) and RTV Slovenija (Slovenia). Additionally, Godzilla Minus One is finally launching on digital platforms iTunes, Amazon and Google in the U.K. and Germany, and on iTunes, Fetch and Google in Australia, this month.

“Godzilla Minus One has proven to be a hit both at the box offices and on the awards circuit, cementing itself as the tentpole movie of the iconic franchise with some of the best Godzilla sequences ever put to screen,” said Jennifer Ebell, executive vp EMEA sales and acquisitions at Fifth Season. “Through our strategic partnership with Toho International, we’re able to leverage synergies between our two companies — and work to seed their elevated and world-class content internationally. 

Godzilla Minus One was written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, who also did the visual effects  The film grossed more than $110 million worldwide and made history by winning the best visual effects Oscar at the 96th Academy Awards. It is the top-grossing live-action Japanese film of all time at the North American box office. 

Added Ebell: “We’re proud to be handling one of their most successful titles to date as we bring Godzilla Minus One to a range of new homes all around the world, and maximize both value and viewership of the project with further transactional output deals rolling out imminently.”

Toho acquired a 25 percent stake in Fifth Season for $225 million in 2023. Korean entertainment giant CJ ENM retained majority ownership of Fifth Season in the deal, but the partners promoted the pact as creating new opportunities for global collaboration and business expansion between East Asia and the West. Fifth Season is best known for producing high-end TV series ike Apple TV+’s hit series Severance, Max’s Tokyo Vice and Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers.