Criticism

Japan/UK
Many people from Japan/UK felt the American remake of Godzilla did not do justice to the Japanese 1954 remake.
In Japan, godzillas real name was 'Gojria'.

Amazon
Reviews from trasactional website ebay was positive and negative

negative
'Unlike some of the other people who have reviewed this, I'm not a Godzilla fan outraged that this film doesn't do justice to the original. My complaint about this film is simply that it is naff in its own right. Don't bother! '

positive
'If you like these films this should be a thrill for you: Independance Day, The Core and The Day after Tommorow. All of which are directed by Roland Emmerich, who relies on not necarsarily story but more on thrills like speicial effects and big budgets. But everyone should at least give it a try, so rent it if you're not going to buy it. '

Distribution/exibition

uAppeal

Godzilla was rated PG12 in the uk so it appealed to many children.

Convergence

Toy company 'TreadMasters' and video games company 'Atari' benefited as 3 games, on the PS2 and XBOX, and many toys where made from Godzillas success.

Godzilla was funded around $130,000,000 to help create its special effects digitalizing the Monster. (Centropolis effects, digital effects and creature animation).

This helped boost their worldwide profit to $379,014,294.

Opening Weekend

$55,726,951 (USA) (25 MaY 1998) (3,310 Screens)

£4,176,960 (UK) (19 July 1998 ) (484 Screens)

Marketing Campaign

In london, the production companies made certain body parts i.e eyes, claws and feet appear on billboards and bus stops. this helped keep Godzillas identity secret. This encouraged audiences to buy tickets to uncover its mystery.

Jean Reno

This role in Godzilla allowed him to feature in future films such as Pink Panther, Hotel Rwanda and The da vinci code.

Matthew Brodderick

Played the voice for Adult simba in the lion king, 1994. also awarded for a successful spell in the US tv drama, Fraizer. He also was nominated in the MTV awards for a suuccesful role in the film 'the cable guy' 1996.

After he filmed in Godzilla he featured in the film 'Inspector Gadget' 1999.

Theatrical Release

July 16 1998 ( UK )

Why was Godzilla so successful?

Godzilla was successful due to its successful Theatrical Trailer. Godzillas USP(unique selling point) in the trailer was 'Size does matter' and 'The producer of Independence Day'. The film was also released in america on memorial day, Monday 25th

Roland Emmerich

Roland Emmerich was born on the 10th of November 1955. He is a German film director and producer. He is famously known for his disaster and action films.

Before Producing Godzilla, he was the executive producer for the film 'Independence Day' starring Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum.

TriStar and Centropolis Film Production felt Roland was a good candidate to produce and direct this film. They could have chose him due to the sucess of his previous film Independence Day,1996. 

Independence day which made an astonishing 800m dollar worldwide profit. Both production companies felt Emmerich was successful enough to produce another worldwide blockbuster again.