Thanks to the recent successes of Legendary's Monsterverse movies and Toho's Japan-produced movies, Godzilla seems to have more momentum than ever. It seems like there's a new major movie in the franchise every couple of years, and all of them are stomping their way to huge takes at the box office. It's been 70 years since everyone's favorite radioactive dinosaur's first appearance and he's showing no signs of slowing down. If anything, Godzilla is consistently reaching a bigger audience all around the world than ever.

So far, there have been four main eras of the Godzilla movies — in Japan, at least; the American movies tend to be considered separate, and the Monsterverse movies constitute a distinct sub-franchise with their own canon. With one exception, the Japanese periods of the franchise are named for the reigning Japanese Emperor's era name, though there is some overlap between the different periods of the franchise and the different Emperors' reigns.