New York City has a new monster problem, at least if you happen to be looking at the right billboard in Times Square.
To promote Godzilla Minus Zero, Toho has launched an immersive 3D anamorphic advertising campaign that makes it look as though the King of the Monsters is tearing his way out of a building and attacking the city.
The enormous digital spectacle has been making the rounds on social media, and it has a few familiar pop-culture connections that make the whole thing even more entertaining.
The campaign uses specialized curved digital screens to create an anamorphic illusion. From the intended viewing angle, the images appear to have depth beyond the flat surface of the billboard. The sequence begins innocently enough, with conventional promotional graphics and text, including the announcement that the movie was filmed for IMAX. Then the screen shifts into something considerably more destructive.
Godzilla first appears as a massive silhouette emerging behind a layer of storm clouds. The creature then lunges forward, seemingly breaking through the digital frame and thrashing into the building’s glass exterior with its massive tail. The illusion makes it look as though Godzilla is physically forcing his way out of the structure, with detailed CGI skin and glowing eyes helping sell the effect.
The monster doesn’t stop at the breakout. Godzilla raises an arm and lets out a roar as his dorsal fins flare with an increasingly bright blue glow. He charges up his atomic breath and unleashes the attack, filling the billboard with a blinding blast of fire and smoke before the sequence gives way to the Godzilla Minus Zero title card. It is a carefully staged digital illusion, but the perspective makes it look like the monster is coming straight for the people watching from the street.
The ad has been circulating on TikTok and Instagram, where fans have been sharing the spectacle and comparing it to the kind of monster-sized promotion that helped make the 1998 American Godzilla movie such a memorable New York event. That film made the city a major part of its marketing identity, and the new campaign is tapping into a similar idea: make Godzilla feel like he has arrived in the real world, rather than simply putting another movie poster on a wall.
There is also a direct connection between the Times Square location and the story of Godzilla Minus Zero. The sequel’s promotional footage points toward Godzilla leaving Japan behind and heading for New York City, with the Statue of Liberty appearing as a target. That makes the billboard more than a flashy advertisement. It puts the monster in the very city that the film’s trailers suggest could be in his path.
Directed by Takashi Yamazaki, Godzilla Minus Zero follows the events of the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One. The earlier film introduced audiences to a postwar Japan still struggling to rebuild when Godzilla appeared, with former kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima caught in the middle of the destruction. Minus Zero moves the story forward to 1949, continuing the story of Shikishima and his family. The film is scheduled to open in Japan on November 3, 2026, and in North America on November 6.
The Times Square spectacle also brings to mind a very different fictional monster attack in New York. In Back to the Future Part II, Marty McFly walks past a theater advertising Jaws 19, a 3D Holomax sequel directed by Max Spielberg. The gag is one of the film’s jokes about Hollywood’s seemingly endless appetite for sequels. Its holographic shark leaps out of the theater display and lunges at Marty, who reacts as though he has nearly been eaten by a movie advertisement.
The real Max Spielberg, Steven Spielberg’s son, took a different career path from his father’s. Rather than becoming a film director, he pursued video game development. His work has included projects connected to the Medal of Honor series and Assassin’s Creed Unity. He later co-founded the game studio FuzzyBot and worked as a game director on Lynked: Banner of the Spark. So while the Jaws 19 gag imagined him directing a blockbuster sequel, his actual career has been in games.
There has also been renewed conversation about the possibility of another Jaws movie, although there is no confirmed Jaws 5 project. Director Mike Flanagan discussed the subject during an online fan Q&A, saying, “Honestly, I wish to hell I could make a JAWS movie.” He also acknowledged the challenge of following Steven Spielberg’s original while suggesting there is room to do something with the later sequels. Those comments have fueled speculation, but they are not an announcement that Flanagan is making a new Jaws film.
For now, the real monster spectacle is happening in Times Square. Toho’s campaign gives Godzilla Minus Zero a larger-than-life presence in the city that the sequel appears ready to put in danger. And while the billboard doesn’t feature a holographic shark or a fictional Max Spielberg directing Jaws 19, it does offer a pretty convincing reminder that sometimes the most memorable part of a movie campaign is the moment when the advertisement itself seems to attack you.
