Between 1954 and 2004, there were 28 Godzilla films produced by Toho Studios in Japan. These movies comprise the core of the Godzilla franchise, but there have also been many licensed spin-offs, reimaginings, and unlicensed imitations. Here is a brief rundown of the core movies and some of the more prominent spin-offs:

Interestingly, the original Godzilla was created and destroyed in the first film. In 1955, an immediate sequel was filmed: Godzilla Raids Again (known in the U.S. as Gigantis, the Fire Monster) and this featured another of the same species. It was THIS Godzilla who was featured in other Toho films through 1975. This initial group of films (15 in number) has been dubbed by fans the "Showa" series. Many other monsters were created during the time period of these films, and two of them--Rodan and Mothra--were featured in solo films of their own.

In 1978, Hanna-Barbera Productions co-produced a Godzilla cartoon series. It ran as a 30-minute program for three seasons and introduced Godzooky, the "cowardly cousin" of Godzilla.

In 1984 Godzilla was reintroduced by Toho with The Return of Godzilla, which directly referenced only the original 1954 film. Cleverly, an American version of this film was fashioned from the footage with newly inserted scenes with Raymond Burr reprising his 1956 role as reporter Steve Martin! This version was titled Godzilla 1985. The movie began the "Heisei" series that would be linear until 1995 when this particular Godzilla died. During the Heisei series, a time travel story called Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) not only revised Godzilla's origin but increased his height to almost twice that in the Showa series.

The big-budget American movie Godzilla (1998), produced by Sony under license from Toho, was widely panned by Godzilla fans and casual viewers alike. In official lore, the star of this film has since been rechristened by Toho as a creature called "Zillah"--a giant marine iguana resulting from French atomic testing in the 1960s and mistakenly called 'Godzilla' by the American military.

Toho's response to the lackluster American film was a new batch of entries (which again link only to the 1954 original) now called the "Millennium" series, which kicked off with Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999). A total of six movies were made through 2004, ending with the "50th Anniversary" film Godzilla: Final Wars (2004). The six movies in this group are non-linear, meaning they don't connect to each other in plot; in fact, they occupy five different timelines and Godzilla ranges in size from film to film.

Director Gareth Edwards' Godzilla (2014) is a new re-boot of the franchise with homages to the original 1954 film although it has no direct connection to it.