Godzilla vs. Kong

Godzilla films
← Godzilla: King of the Monsters	Godzilla vs. Kong	None →

King Kong films
← Kong: Skull Island	Godzilla vs. Kong	None →

Godzilla vs. Kong See alternate titles Directed by Adam Wingard Producer Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Eric McLeod, Brian Rogers; Kenji Okuhira, Yoshimitsu Banno, Jon Jashni, Thomas Tull (executives) Written by Eric Pearson, Max Borenstein (script); Terry Rossio, Michael Dougherty, Zach Shields (story) Music by Tom Holkenborg Distributor Warner Bros., Legendary PicturesCH, TohoJP Rating PG-13 Budget $160-200 million Box office $123,100,000 (Foreign) Running time 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes) Aspect ratio 2.39:1 Rate this film! 4.14 (141 votes)

	This article concerns an upcoming subject, and will be updated with new information as it arises.

	SPOILER WARNING: This page may contain major plot and/or ending details. Proceed at your own discretion.

“	One will fall	„
	— Tagline

Godzilla vs. Kong (ゴジラvsコング,   Gojira tai Kongu) is a 2021 American science fiction monster film produced by Legendary Pictures, and the fourth entry in the MonsterVerse. It was released to American theaters on March 31, 2021, becoming available to stream via HBO Max the same day for a period of one month. It will be distributed to theaters in Japan by Toho on May 14, 2021.

The second film to pit Godzilla and King Kong against each other, Godzilla vs. Kong is the culmination of every entry in Legendary and Warner Bros.' MonsterVerse so far. When Godzilla and Kong engage in a battle for supremacy, Monarch embarks on a quest to discover the Titans' origins while a human conspiracy threatens to wipe out all of the ancient creatures.

Development

Rumors of a King Kong vs. Godzilla remake began as soon as Legendary Pictures announced Kong: Skull Island in 2014. On September 10, 2015, Deadline reported that the project's move from Universal Pictures to Godzilla distributor Warner Bros. was meant to facilitate a rematch between the two monsters. The Hollywood Reporter published its own article on the impending crossover six days later. On October 14, 2015, Legendary confirmed its intent to launch a cinematic universe featuring both Godzilla and King Kong, as well as other giant monsters including Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah. Godzilla was the first entry in this cinematic universe, later officially dubbed the MonsterVerse, and it was to be followed by Kong: Skull Island and the Godzilla sequel Godzilla: King of the Monsters before finally culminating with Godzilla vs. Kong. Initially, the release date for Godzilla vs. Kong was simply given as 2020. On May 10, 2016, The Wrap reported that Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong had been given new release dates of March 22, 2019 and May 29, 2020, respectively.

On March 10, 2017, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Legendary would be assembling a writers room to come up with the story for the film, comprised of Terry Rossio (who previously worked on the original version of TriStar's Godzilla film), Patrick McKay, J.D. Payne, Lindsey Beer, Cat Vasko, T.S. Nowlin, and J. Michael Straczynski. On May 3, Warner Bros. announced that it had moved the release date for Godzilla vs. Kong up a week from May 29, 2020 to May 22. Adam Wingard finalized a deal to become the film's director on May 30. In an interview with ScreenCrush on August 18, he described Godzilla vs. Kong as a "massive monster brawl movie." He said the film would contain "lots of monsters going crazy on each other" but also stated "at the end of the day I want there to be an emotional drive to it."

On June 1, That Hashtag Show revealed that Deadpool 2 star Julian Dennison had been cast in the film in a supporting role, while Millie Bobby Brown and Kyle Chandler would both be reprising their roles from Godzilla: King of the Monsters. The article also reported that Legendary had offered Frances McDormand a starring role in the film. The following day, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed this report, save for the talks with McDormand, adding that Zhang Ziyi would be reprising her role from Godzilla: King of the Monsters as well, and that Van Marten would be joining the film's cast. After That Hashtag Show claimed McDormand had been cast in July, her representatives denied her involvement. That Hashtag Show later clarified in a retraction that McDormand was never in negotiations for a role and had passed on the film.

Further casting announcements followed as the film neared the start of production: Brian Tyree Henry on October 10, Demián Bichir on October 17, Alexander Skarsgård on October 25, Eiza González and Rebecca Hall on October 30, Jessica Henwick on November 8, Shun Oguri on November 11, and Lance Reddick on November 14. In a SiriusXM interview on November 5, Skarsgård described his character as "not an alpha, bad-ass hero, which I thought was quite interesting. He is thrown into this very dangerous situation and is definitely not equipped for it and that makes it a bit more interesting in my opinion than had he been a bad-ass dude. He’s just a tiny, tiny human trying to survive between these two behemoths."

On February 21, 2019, Warner Bros. moved up the release date of the film to March 13 to avoid competition with the ninth entry in the The Fast and the Furious franchise.

On May 30, the day before the international theatrical release of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, an advertisement for Godzilla vs. Kong was shown at Licensing Expo 2019, featuring artwork of the two titular monsters battling with the tagline "One will fall." While promoting Godzilla: King of the Monsters in China, Millie Bobby Brown discussed her role as Madison in Godzilla vs. Kong, explaining that as Godzilla and Kong come to blows with one another, she goes on a journey to decide which of them she will ultimately side with. On June 17, Warner Bros. presented footage from Godzilla vs. Kong along with its other major upcoming films to European exhibitors at CineEurope. Deadline reported that Godzilla vs. Kong was set to release internationally on March 11, 2020, two days before its American debut, despite earlier comments from WB Chairman Toby Emmerich suggesting the possibility that the film could be delayed.

On November 25, 2019, Variety reported that the release date for Godzilla vs. Kong had been pushed back eight months to November 20, 2020. A short clip from the film, showing Kong throwing a punch at Godzilla, played before the Warner Bros. presentation at Comic Con Experience in Brazil on December 8, 2019.

On January 7, 2020, photographs from a toy expo surfaced online showing figures for Godzilla vs. Kong. These included multiple figures of Godzilla and Kong, including a figure of Godzilla wearing what appeared to be battle armor labeled "Mega Godzilla" and Kong wielding an axe. Other figures included a Skullcrawler and a new Titan later identified as Warbat. Most noteworthy were several figures of what appeared to be a new incarnation of Mechagodzilla.

On January 17, Adam Wingard posted on his Instagram that Godzilla vs. Kong was in the closing stages of editorial and only a few months away from completion.

On May 20, Legendary Comics held a digital WonderCon panel discussing the upcoming graphic novel tie-ins for the film. The panel revealed the authors and illustrators behind the Kong- and Godzilla-centric graphic novels, as well as The Art of Godzilla vs. Kong and an untitled Kong picture book. Images from the graphic novels were shown as well. On June 10, Film Music Reporter announced that Tom Holkenborg, better known by the stage name Junkie XL, would be scoring the film. On June 12, Deadline announced that Godzilla vs. Kong would be delayed to May 21, 2021.

On November 25, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that WarnerMedia and Warner Bros. were in talks to release Godzilla vs. Kong on HBO Max the same day it would open in theaters, echoing plans for Wonder Woman 1984, after the former blocked a $200 million-plus offer from Netflix. Warner made these plans official on December 3, unveiling a new Godzilla vs. Kong banner in its announcement video. The film will only be available on the service for one month after its theatrical premiere. Two shots of Godzilla and Kong were included in a Warner Bros. sizzle reel shown at Comic Con Experience on December 6. The following day, it was reported that Legendary may take legal action against Warner Bros. over its plans to place the film on HBO Max, as the studio was largely kept out of the loop of this plan and supplied a sizeable portion of its $160 million budget.

On January 15, 2021, Deadline reported that Godzilla vs. Kong's release date would be moving up almost two months to March 26. Eleven days later on January 26, Variety reported that the film's North American release had been pushed back another week to March 31.

Production

Principal photography on Godzilla vs. Kong began on November 12, 2018 in Hawaii, under the title Apex. The production wrapped in Hawaii on December 20 and resumed at Village Roadshow Studios in Oxenford, Australia, in the third week of January. Outdoor shoots took place at various Gold Coast locations, wrapping in early April. Several days of reshoots were conducted afterwards.

Marketing

Godzilla vs. Kong will have an unusually short marketing period for a Hollywood blockbuster, owing to multiple release date changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. On January 21, Legendary Pictures unveiled the first poster for the film, showing Godzilla swimming towards Kong in Hong Kong, and announced that the trailer for the film would be released on Sunday, January 24. They also launched Twitter and Instagram accounts specifically for the film. MonarchSciences.com, originally created to market Godzilla: King of the Monsters, came back online with an emergency warning instead of its map: "TITANUS GOJIRA AND TITANUS KONG ON COLLISION COURSE." The website later changed back to its usual global interactive map format. YouTube began running short ads for the film the same day. When the trailer dropped, it accumulated 25.6 million views in 24 hours, a record for a Warner Bros. trailer in that time frame. Toho released the film's Japanese trailer, containing new footage, on February 7, also announcing its Japanese release date of May 14. On February 14, the official Godzilla vs. Kong Twitter released a teaser with new footage. New TV spots and posters continued to drop throughout the rest of the month and into March.

On March 8, Tamashii Nations opened a pop-up shop in New York City which displayed their Godzilla vs. Kong S.H. MonsterArts figures, Jia's costume, props of two Skullcrawler eggs, and a DougheGoji statue. The shop will close on April 25.

Plot

TBA

Staff

Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.

• Directed by   Adam Wingard
• Screenplay by   Eric Pearson, Max Borenstein
• Story by   Terry Rossio, Michael Dougherty, Zach Shields
• Produced by   Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Eric McLeod, Brian Rogers
• Executive producers   Kenji Okuhira, Yoshimitsu Banno, Jon Jashni, Thomas Tull
• Music by   Tom Holkenborg
• Cinematography by   Ben Seresin
• Edited by   Josh Schaeffer
• Production design by   Owen Patterson, Tom Hammock
• Assistant directors   Ashley Douglass, Nick Satriano
• Visual effects supervisor   John "DJ" DesJardin
• Sound design by   Jason W. Jennings, Erik Aadahl, Ethan Var Dye Vin, Brandon Jones

Cast

Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.

• Alexander Skarsgård   as   Dr. Nathan Lind, Monarch Chief Cartographer
• Millie Bobby Brown   as   Madison Russell
• Rebecca Hall   as   Dr. Ilene Andrews, Monarch anthropological linguist
• Brian Tyree Henry   as   Bernie Hayes, podcast host
• Shun Oguri   as   Ren Serizawa, Apex Cybernetics tech engineer
• Eiza González   as   Maya Simmons, Apex executive
• Julian Dennison   as   Josh Valentine
• Kyle Chandler   as   Dr. Mark Russell
• Demián Bichir   as   Walter Simmons, Apex CEO
• Kaylee Hottle   as   Jia
• Lance Reddick
• Van Marten
• Hakeem Kae-Kazim   as   Admiral Wilcox
• Benjamin Rigby   as   Sonar operator

Appearances

Monsters Godzilla (DougheGoji) King Kong Mechagodzilla Warbats Skullcrawlers Skull Devil (stock footage) Hellhawks Leafwings Hollow Earth spider King Ghidorah (skull; stock footage) MUTO Eight-legged female (stock footage) Queen MUTO (stock footage) Rodan (stock footage) Behemoth (stock footage) Methuselah (stock footage) Scylla (stock footage) Mothra (mentioned)

Weapons, vehicles, races, and organizations Monarch Apex Cybernetics Hollow Earth Anti-Gravity Vehicle Osprey Nimitz-class aircraft carrier Arleigh Burke-class destroyer (USS McCampbell) Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser (USS Lake Champlain) Iowa-class battleship Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Unidentified submarine

Gallery

Main article: Godzilla vs. Kong/Gallery.

Soundtrack

Main article: Godzilla vs. Kong: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

Alternate titles

• Godzilla vs. King Kong (哥吉拉大戰金剛 Gējílā dàzhàn Jīngāng; China)
  • (哥斯拉大戰金剛 Gēsīlā dàzhàn Jīngāng; Hong Kong)
  • (哥吉拉大戰金剛 Gējílā dàzhàn Jīngāng; Taiwan)

Theatrical releases

• France, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan - March 24, 2021
• Argentina, Australia, Chile, Germany, Hungary, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea - March 25, 2021
• Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Spain, Vietnam - March 26, 2021
• Canada, United States - March 31, 2021
• Lithuania - April 1, 2021
• Sweden - April 28, 2021
• Japan - May 14, 2021
• Slovakia, Ukraine - May 20, 2021
• United Kingdom - May 21, 2021

Premium formats

• 3D (post-converted)
• IMAX 3D
• Dolby Vision and Atmos

Box office

Godzilla vs. Kong was one of many Hollywood films initially scheduled for 2020 but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2020, Warner Bros. announced it would release a full 2021 lineup to theaters, in tandem with one-month HBO Max releases in the United States, rather than continue to delay its films until COVID-19 vaccines became widespread. This meant Godzilla vs. Kong opened at a time when many potential viewers were reluctant to visit a movie theater for fear of infection; in addition, many theaters faced seating capacity restrictions or were temporarily shuttered. However, with the other major studios continuing to push back most of their films, it will face minimal box-office competition.

Godzilla vs. Kong began its international rollout on March 24 and opened to $121.8 million, easily the best figure for a Hollywood movie in the past year. In China, it made $70.3 million in its opening, narrowly exceeding the debut of Godzilla: King of the Monsters. The film will debut on March 31 in the United States, an unusual Wednesday release to take advantage of the Easter holiday, and is projected to gross $23.7 million in its opening weekend by Guts + Data. Its release prompted Regal Cinemas, the second-largest chain in the country, to begin reopening its theaters on April 2, after closing them all in October.

Videos

Main article: Godzilla vs. Kong/Videos.

Trivia

• With a runtime of 113 minutes, Godzilla vs. Kong is the shortest entry in the MonsterVerse.
• Godzilla vs. Kong is the first Godzilla movie to feature "vs." in its English title since Godzilla vs. Megaguirus in 2000. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, released in Japan as Gojira tai Mekagojira ("Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla"), was the last to use "vs." in its title overall.
  • It is also the first film to include the English "vs" in its Japanese title since 1995's Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (ゴジラvsデストロイア,   Gojira tai Desutoroia).
• In 2013, Peter Jackson approached future Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard with an offer to direct a sequel to his 2005 King Kong remake called Skull Island, written by Simon Barrett and produced by Mary Parent. According to Wingard, the film was never made because it "was set up at Universal, and the King Kong rights somehow ended up at Warner Bros." Parent also produced Godzilla vs. Kong.
• Both Zhang Ziyi and Jessica Henwick were cast for Godzilla vs. Kong, but neither appears in the finished film. Ziyi was set to reprise her role as Dr. Ilene Chen from Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
• Madison and Mark Russell are the only characters in the film to return from a previous entry in the MonsterVerse.
• Mechagodzilla is the final "Big Five" Toho monster to appear in a MonsterVerse film, the others being Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Rodan.
• This is the second film that Kong fights an mechanized version of an monster the first his own mechanical dulpicate Mechani-Kong in King Kong Escapes which would inspire the creation of Mechagodzilla.
  • Futthermore Kong and Godzilla teaming up aganist Mechagodzilla is the reverse in Kodansha Godzilla King of the Monsters manga manga where Mechani-Kong teams up with Mechagodzilla aganist Godzilla while in the film has Godzilla and Kong team up to defeat Mechagodzilla.

External links

• Official site
• Official Twitter
• Official Facebook
• Official Instagram
• Collider set visit
• Comicbook set visit
• ComingSoon set visit
• JoBlo set visit
• Nerdist set visit

References

This is a list of references for Godzilla vs. Kong. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: ^[1]

Comments

Showing 1700 comments. When commenting, please remain respectful of other users, stay on topic, and avoid role-playing and excessive punctuation. Comments which violate these guidelines may be removed by administrators. Loading comments...