10 Hidden Gem Horror Monster Movies

For those in Japan, Shin Godzilla is absolutely not a hidden gem. For those outside of the country, though, this is a film that largely flew under the radar. To highlight this divide, Shin Godzilla's total global box office haul was just shy of $78 million - with nearly $76 million of that coming solely from Japan.

To put into context how strong a return Shin Godzilla made in Japan, that territory's box office number is more than the worldwide figures for 1998's Godzilla, 2014's Godzilla, 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong; all movies which had at least ten times the budget of Shin Godzilla.

So, why haven't more people outside of Japan seen Shin Godzilla? One significant reason is it only received extremely sparse screenings in nations such as the United States and the United Kingdom. Still, those who did catch the feature during its theatrical release or on its subsequent home release, tend to have nothing but praise for Toho's soft reboot of the wider Godzilla franchise.

Part of the charm of Shin Godzilla is in how it very much takes things back to basics, delivering a somewhat minimalist film - well, as minimalist as a movie about a giant city-destroying monster can be - focusing on political power plays and the ground-level people forced to deal with the fallout of Godzilla's destruction across Tokyo and beyond.