Films and Fiction

The first few months of 2024 have been a rocky one at the cinema, but if there’s one undisputed winner, it’s Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, the latest entry in the MonsterVerse from Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures.

There are a lot of explanations for why this movie has done so well. The fact it’s pure, unapologetic entertainment. It’s similarity to superhero movies stealing many Marvel and DC fans away. The evergreen appeal of its two main characters. One big thing that isn’t in question is that Hollywood will be looking for a way to latch onto the monster movie hype, but can they actually take advantage of it?

The box office takings alone are enough to prove the monster movie credentials, but paired with the unexpected hit of Godzilla Minus One, and its Oscar success, studios will be desperate to find the next big thing. This isn’t a big worry for Warner Bros. who can ride the MonsterVerse all the way to the bank, but for other big studios, like Paramount and Disney, it’s a different story, as they don’t have anything they can take straight out of the box and put to work.

2025 could be something of a test with Jurassic World 4 releasing in June. It will be interesting to see whether Universal follow the MonsterVerse into dumb, destructive territory or try to keep some of the intelligence of previous movies. Obviously, Jurassic World: Dominion seems more like the latter, but JW4 is hinted at being something of a reboot, and with filming yet to start, all options could still be on the table.

What about Hollywood in general, though? Unfortunately for them there isn’t much they can do to get caught up in the monster craze. There just aren’t that many monster franchises that have this kind of appeal. Godzilla and Kong are the big hitters and they’re spoken for. There is a chance they could be reimagined in a similar way to Minus One, giving audiences different angles on the same subject, but there’s only so many times you can wheel out the same monsters before audiences get tired of kaiju capers.

There’s the possibility that old titles that have some brand recognition will be rebooted, such as Journey to the Centre of the Earth or The Lost World. This would give audiences something similar to the MonsterVerse’s Hollow Earth and provide an easy framework to build from, and no doubt b-movie royalty like Tremors will be trying to get a piece of the action.

For many studios, though, it looks like the best option would be to do something new. There are no doubt many comic books and forgotten IPs that could be rebooted, but it’s probably as easy to just start fresh. There’s the alien angle, or giant robots, or a completely original creature, like the MUTOs in Godzilla (2014). They’re unique and don’t fit the general big monster pattern.

One bit of advice I’d give is to ditch the big ape. Planet of the Apes is still turning out movies and let’s be honest, there are only so many apes you can root for at once. Having an original monster design will at least give a different look to every movie.

In reality, though, there’s going to be more of a struggle for Hollywood to ride this wave than previous hypes. The superhero genre had hundreds of comic book characters waiting to hit the big screen, while for the fantasy craze a decade earlier there were dozens of big novel series waiting to be adapted. They weren’t always well handled, but they were readily available. Now, it seems like the only option for many studios is to start right from the beginning and build some completely new franchises.

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