When Shin Godzilla hit US shores back in 2016, its home releases were a bit of a mess—especially after it exited theaters in what was, before the release of Godzilla Minus One at least, a historic run for the franchise. But, almost a decade later, the film is now stomping back to theaters… and beyond that, finally getting the home release scenario it deserved in the first place.
As revealed by Variety today, GKids has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to Shin Godzilla (which had previously been owned by Funimation, who released the film back in 2016 as the first Japanese Godzilla film to hit US theaters since Godzilla 2000). GKids will release a new 4K version of Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno‘s modernized spin on the kaiju icon in theaters starting August 14, but crucially the studio will also be releasing a new, UHD home release of the film in 4K, the first time the film will have been made available in the format in the U.S.
Something has surfaced in Tokyo Bay.
Newly remastered in 4K, SHIN GODZILLA from directors Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi returns to North American theatres starting August 14.https://t.co/4Gey95teDD pic.twitter.com/EvXyTCYl7E
— GKIDS Films (@GKIDSfilms) June 2, 2025
Beyond the remastering, the new home release will also restore the stylized text cards that were removed in subtitled versions of Shin Godzilla‘s previous U.S. home release. Part of the film’s commentary on the administrative absurdity of Japanese governmental bureaucracy, giving officials and projects overtly long and formalized titles, the theatrical release displayed the text captions in a stylized manner alongside the original Japanese, but home releases instead ran a clean version of the film removing them, replacing the titles with default subtitling. Sure, the commentary still came across, but it just didn’t look anywhere near as good, and arguably made for an even worse subtitling experience.
But after the runaway success of Godzilla Minus One in 2023, it’s good to see Toho and GKids capitalizing to do justice to another entry in the Godzilla saga that remains just as timely as it did a decade ago. Shin Godzilla will return to American theaters from August 14, with the new 4K home release set to follow at a later date.
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