Godzilla is a 2014 American monster film directed by Gareth Edwards. It is a reboot[8] of Toho's Godzilla franchise and is the 30th film in the Godzilla franchise, the first film in Legendary's MonsterVerse, and the second Godzilla film to be completely produced by a Hollywood studio.[a] The film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, and Bryan Cranston. In the film, a soldier attempts to return to his family while caught in the crossfire of an ancient rivalry between Godzilla and two parasitic monsters known as MUTOs. The project began as an IMAX short film in 2004 but was transferred to Legendary in 2009 to be redeveloped as a feature film. The film was officially announced in March 2010 and Edwards was announced as the director in January 2011. Principal photography began in March 2013 in the United States and Canada and ended in July 2013. Godzilla was theatrically released on May 16, 2014, to generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the direction, visual effects, music, cinematography, respect to the source material, and Cranston's performance, but Godzilla's screen-time and characters were criticized.[10] The film was a box office success, grossing between $524–529 million worldwide against a production budget of $160 million, print and advertisement costs of $100 million,[11] and a break-even point of $380 million.[12] The film's success prompted Toho to produce a reboot of their own and Legendary to proceed with sequels, with Godzilla: King of the Monsters released on May 31, 2019, and Godzilla vs. Kong released on March 24, 2021.