Netflix has an Oscar-winning monster movie hit on its hands

One of our must-watch recommendations of 2023 has hit Netflix, and is already the streamer’s top movie in both the US and UK.

Godzilla Minus One has been added to the Netflix’s library. It's tearing up the global charts over at Flixpatrol, and is the number one movie in 17 countries at the time of writing, including the UK and US. And if our thumbs-up isn’t enough, how about an Oscar win?

It picked up the Best Visual Effects Academy Award at the 2024 Oscars. This is truly remarkable given Godzilla Minus One reportedly had a production budget of around just $15 million.

That’s right, a $15 million movie beat the $250 million Guardians of the Galaxy Part 3 in the awards category most closely related to putting money up there on the screen.

Godzilla Minus One was also fantastically well-reviewed, sitting at 98% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes, and a score of 81 at Metacritic.

What’s so special about Godzilla Minus One? It’s a Japanese production, and one with a completely different feel to the western Monsterverse Godzilla films.

Godzilla Minus One is far more grounded, more stripped back and real-feeling.

It captures the unstoppable destruction and scale of this iconic Japanese monster, even if this version of Godzilla is far smaller than that of some previous ones.

The film follows a Kamikaze pilot in the years following World War II. He is among the first to witness Godzilla, and becomes a key part of helping save Tokyo from the towering beast.

Godzilla Minus One is now widely regarded as one of the very best movies in the entire series, which now has more than 30 entries.

In a tag team with the also great Shin Godzilla from 2016, Minus One is proof that not only can epic-looking films be made cheaply (Shin Godzilla’s production budget was under $10 million), but that the most interesting Godzilla movies are still made in Japan.

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