Embed from Getty Images
Godzilla vs. Kong won at the box office this weekend. That may be because Raya and The Last Dragon has been out for a few weeks and people have almost no other options. Plus we’re ready to go back to the movies now that over 40% of US adults have received at least one vaccination. The fact that it did so well is impressive. However I’m wondering if this film would have been a nonstarter in a typical movie climate. I’ve seen both Skull Island and Godzilla: King of the Monsters and I still had no idea what was happening in this movie. It was confusing, nonsensical, didn’t explain the premise at all, and violated its own rules. There were some funny moments, particularly in the group with Millie Bobby Brown, Brian Tyree Henry and Julian Dennison, but overall it was just a mess. I like ridiculous action movies when they’re funny and don’t take themselves too seriously. The Meg, Skyscraper, Rampage and Independence Day: Resurgence were great examples of this. This movie just felt like a fever dream and like they were making it up as they went along. I’m not going to post spoilers, but check out this twitter thread for some of the specific reasons I disliked it.
While I’m mad that this movie got made, I’m happy that people are going back to the movies again and that movie stocks are rallying. This film made almost $50 million at the US box office its opening weekend, which makes it the biggest film to open since the pandemic started! What’s more is that people could watch it at home on HBO and they still went to the movies. Here’s more from CNN.
Warner Bros., the studio that released the film, said Sunday that “Godzilla vs. Kong” has raked in nearly $50 million at the US box office since its release last Wednesday, sending shares of AMC (AMC) — a stock that’s incredibly popular with traders on Reddit — soaring more than 15%.
Those box office numbers make the epic monster mash film the biggest Hollywood hit, by far, since the pandemic forced many theaters to shut down for a big stretch last year. Some cities are now letting theaters reopen, but at a limited capacity to start.
Some moviegoers are clearly craving the big-screen experience, and that will be a boost for the likes of AMC. The company which also benefited from an analyst upgrade Monday. Eric Wold of B. Riley Securities raised his rating to a “buy” and hiked his price target from $7 a share to $13 — about 20% above where the stock is now trading.
AMC’s monster move was echoed on a smaller scale by other related stocks: Cinemark (CNK), Marcus (MCS) and giant screen exhibitor IMAX (IMAX) also each rose between 3% and 6% while the UK-listed shares of Cineworld, the London-based owner of Regal Cinemas, were up 4%.
I saw this at a drive in because I’m only half vaccinated and am not ready to go back to the theater yet. It might be a few months until I’m ready to do that again. The advantage to being at a drive in is that you talk through the whole film and don’t have to worry about disturbing anyone. I was able to make fun of this in real time and I still hated it. It also made me feel slightly bad for Alex Skarsgard. I had such high hopes for him after True Blood! After I saw this film, his bizarre Kimmel interview made so much more sense. At least he’s getting a paycheck.
It’s good news that people are paying to see something we can get with an HBO subscription at home. The fact that it’s this ridiculous subpar film just underlines how hungry we are for blockbuster movies again.
We watched it this weekend and omg. It was so bad. My kids wanted to see it, so that was the only reason we watched it. We havent seen King of the Monsters or Skull Island, so i’m sure we were missing some plot points, but……yikes. It was bad. We have HBOmax so watched it on that, and we have a projector with a huge screen in our basement and a good sound system – so its pretty close to the movies, if not quite as good – but omg. I can’t decide if it was better or worse than the new Tom and Jerry movie that was on HBO max last month. because that was also really bad.
The fight scene between Godzilla and Kong in the ocean (that’s not a spoiler, its in the trailer) was really cool to see, in terms of special effects and such – but yeah. the movie was bad. Oh well. At least people are heading back to the theaters.
I think my first movie back in a theater is going to be In the Heights, because I really want to see that on the big screen.
I absolutely love it. I watched it at home, comfortable on my couch, trash talking the whole way, but still absolutely loved it. The movie is about to giant monsters fighting. I really enjoy the fact that they didn’t try to fill it with a whole bunch of exposition. Just show me the two giant monsters fighting! That’s all I wanted, and I got that in abundance.
But what about the horrible dialogue?!?!!? I think if I could have just flipped to the action sequences I would have liked it more. But they had to keep talking and trying to put some sort of plot in there lol.
Why can’t Alex get better roles?
I guess you could ask his Emmy and golden globe that.
Dude I know he is great and has accolades. It’s the reason I’m confused by the fact that he can’t seem to book the kind of work he should be getting.
I think he keeps trying NOT to do hunky roles, or to do something really quirky or artsy in between so people don’t think he’s coasting on his looks. It may be he’s being very particular. I haven’t seen The Stand but have heard he’s very good as Flagg. He has a heavy hand in the new one (The Northmen), working for several years to get it made. As long as he can live on his car commercials, he can afford do only a handful of projects in a few years.
The movie sucked, but the studio’s Twitter game was ON POINT. Some of their Tweets were absolutely hilarious.
I haven’t watched but I’m taking from random reviews/comments its a good-bad movie? And it’s going to make Eiza Gonzalez a big star? Am I getting all this?
I don’t even think it’s that good-bad, lol, its pretty much just bad. The special effects are really good though, just dont pay any attention to the “plot” or the dialogue and you’ll probably be okay lol. My 9 year old thought it was AWESOME ha.
Who won?
In the original Godzilla vs. Kong, Kong won in the USA version and Godzilla won in the Japanese version. (The original 1950’s movie made with too different endings and I have seen them both.)
Another good one if you can find it on video or Pay-Per-View is “To Kill All Monsters”.
Eiza was in it for less than five minutes. She’s good at self-promo though.
“ And it’s going to make Eiza Gonzalez a big star?”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! What?! Who is saying that?! She’s barely in it. Until you’ve seen the movie you have no idea how funny this statement is.
Watched it this weekend and loved it! As Laura said above, just give me the two monsters fighting and I am happy.
That interview wasn’t bizarre – it was hilarious (minus Fallon. He’s such an awful interviewer). Skarsgard has such a dry, quirky sense of humour! I wish he could find a niche like Hemsworth where he can be hunky and funny. I suspect people don’t know what to do when someone that hot is that humble and goofy.
This ^^ I always find him really funny – like more than I expect from someone with abs like those. And he seems to not take himself too seriously. ASkars has def grown on me over the years – would love to see him in more stuff.
Deleted
I loved it. It was brainless popcorn movie, pure entertainment. The fangirl in me squealed at parts (teamzilla) though I was hoping for a Mothra appearance, she wasn’t there (sad face). Maybe next time.
You don’t go to a monster movie like this where the two main characters are CGI creations and non verbal and expect deep philosophical dialogue. You expect pretend science and explosions. It hit all the marks for me.
Itawy. This is exactly how I felt too. I enjoyed the movie for what it was.
I didn’t make it 10 minutes into it. I couldn’t get past the cold opening.
It made complete sense though? Like every single plot point logically followed another. Are people just bad at comprehension these days?
Also Alex was on Fallon not Kimmel, and it was funny not bizarre? The fact that you found if bizarre is what’s bizarre. I am very confused by the inability of comprehension in this post.
This movie also got an A cincemascore, 70%+ on rotten tomatoes.
My comprehension is fine, thank you very much, lol. It was just a horrible movie. I can see if people liked it for the action, but let’s not put the words “plot” and “logical” in the same sentence about that movie lol.
I’m not seeing where the interview was bizarre?
It was typical AS humor, I’ve seen a lot of interviews with him and it was pretty on point with his personality
Yeah Skarsgard is goofy and I love that about him. I don’t find him weird at all. I do wish he’d pick better film roles, he’s a really talented actor.
On Easter me and my mom were looking at what was on HBOMax and she was like “Godzilla vs. Kong? That sounds loud.” Lol. That pretty much sums up my feelings on it, too. I watched Skull Island for Tom Hiddleston and thought it was pretty fun, but I’m not really into this type of action film.
Well…the titular fights were good. But there were about nine humans with at least something to do and that was about seven and a half too many. Woof, just terrible.
And I am really starting to hate how sterile and sexless blockbusters are these days. You have Alex Skarsgard (super hot) and Rebecca Hall (beautiful) hanging around the whole movie and….nothing? Like not even a tiny bit of tension? Look if you are going to force us to sit through human stuff at least let us have some fun!
I don’t know, I really enjoyed it for what it was. I saw it with my teen daughter and we had a good time.
I loved it. But then again, I have terrible taste in movies, lol