HBO Max and Netflix Are Reportedly Headed For a Blockbuster Bidding War To Release 'Godzilla vs. Kong' In The U.S.
Another one bites the dust. We all know the movie industry is an really really bad spot with covid. Wonder Woman 1984, Black Widow (likely) and now Godzilla vs. Kong (probably) all headed to streaming services instead of the big screen. I have mixed emotions. My gut reaction was ecstatic because I'm as big of a Godzilla guy as they come and this movie has been delayed no less than one billion times. As a dude whose childhood closet has Godzilla action figures all over the place, I've been waiting for this movie for a long fucking time. Given I have zero patience, I just want it now. The other side of the coin is that this is a movie made for the theaters. Not much these days is going to get me off my couch and to the cinema to do that whole song and dance. Godzilla vs. Kong certainly was that caliber of a movie. When these two are going at it you want the full experience with the sound cranked up to a trillion. I want to have my extra large popcorn in my lap with more butter to stop Fat Bastard's heart. It's obviously not on the hype level of Avengers, but this kind of movie is not made for your living room when you see it for the first time.
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I get it though. At some point these big time movie production companies have to cut their losses. This was supposed to come out in March of 2020. MARCH! We still haven't seen a goddamn trailer. All I have a is few still shots to get me going. We don't have a vaccine this moment. There's a vaccine coming, but it's not here right now and there's not telling how the country will look fast forward 6 months from now.
Are streaming services the answer? I imagine no definite decision will be made until they see the numbers on Wonder Woman, but they don't really have much of a choice. Netflix reportedly has a $200 million offer out there for the rights, but HBO Max's parent company Warner Bros. holds all the cards. $200 mill sounds like a pretty good deal to me considering the circumstances and that the last Godzilla movie only made $110 mill in the states. You could get that nice check AND have a China theatrical release on top of that. Seems almost like a best case scenario to me.
Legendary is stuck with the cost of carrying an unreleased big-budget film. Though Warner Bros. has only a 25 percent stake in the movie, it controls the release.
Decisions on the movie’s fate are being handled at the highest level, with WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar and Warner Bros. chairman Ann Sarnoff figuring out an offer for a streaming release on HBO Max that in theory also includes a theatrical component. -Hollywood Reporter
Could this be the last Monster Verse movie released? The reaction on Twitter seems to think so. Obviously if the vaccine works like a charm and we're back to normal that's a different conversation, but if going to the movies is dead they aren't going to make these kind of movies moving forward.
The little kid in me is going to win this battle at the end of the day. Release this movie as soon as humanly possible. Let me get my 3Chi gummies and allow me to marinate into my couch with the sound cranked to 100. Gimme Zilla vs. Kong and maybe/probably both of them versus Mechagodzilla towards the end of the blockbuster. Gimme it all. I'm ready.