Claim: Aaron Taylor-Johnson starred in a film.

Godzilla is a 2014 American monster film directed by Gareth Edwards and a reboot of Toho 's Godzilla franchise . It 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 , the first being the 1998 film of the same name . It stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson , Ken Watanabe , Elizabeth Olsen , Juliette Binoche , Sally Hawkins , David Strathairn , and Bryan Cranston .   The film is a co-production between Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. . Pictures , with the latter also distributing the film worldwide , except in Japan where it was distributed by Toho . The project initially began in 2004 and was originally intended to be an IMAX short film but was later transferred to Legendary for development as a feature film . Principal photography took place in the United States and Canada in 2013 .   Godzilla was released worldwide in 2D , 3D and IMAX on May 16 , 2014 to generally positive reviews and was a box office success , grossing $ 200 million domestically and $ 529.1 million worldwide . The film 's success prompted Toho to produce a reboot of its own and Legendary to proceed with sequels and a shared cinematic franchise , with Godzilla : King of the Monsters set to be released in 2019 and Godzilla vs. Kong to be released in 2020 .