The Monsterverse has been building since 2014 when Godzilla netted $529 million at the worldwide box office. After four films that led up to the cinematic fight of the century, Godzilla vs. Kong, the franchise had already reaped $1.94 billion, as The Numbers calculates. Significantly, this fourth installment was the cheapest in terms of production, costing $155 million, making its $468 million in March 2021 all the more impressive. So, it was never going to be too long before Warner Bros. announced a sequel.
This next movie, currently just known as Godzilla vs. Kong 2, will be another team-up movie for the Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures franchise, seeing the two take on a mysterious threat, per the Collider article. At the end of the last movie, the two Titans seemingly called a truce, with Godzilla swimming off and Kong returning to the Hollow Earth to rule. In 2024, we’ll get to see what unseats them to fend off another joint threat and maybe usher in another rumble between the two.
As the release nears next year, the marketing team will undoubtedly be looking for fun ways to get the flick in the minds of audiences around the world. The Monarch Sciences promotional website made for the Monsterverse is still live and may even be updated, but it seems likely that the team will go much further, perhaps even beyond the crossovers and promos that were run for Godzilla vs. Kong in 2021.
Merchandise and big crossovers
As is to be expected of major cinematic releases, merchandise vendors are going to have a lot of fun with the next movie, just as they did with Godzilla vs. Kong. Expectedly, there was a new design and pack for Pop! collectables, featuring two detailed vinyl figures exclusive to BAM! It wasn’t just the mega collectible brand that weighed in with such merchandising, though. Up-and-coming creators YouTooz released a scenic collectible featuring Kong and Godzilla squaring off atop a warship. Even if you’re not a big collector or super fan of the history of the two Titans, they’re so iconic that people will enjoy the models, as shown by both of these examples being sold out. Then, there are the crossovers.
Like with the merchandise, Godzilla and Kong are so iconic that almost any other brand can integrate the imagery and appease their own customers and fans without them even seeing Godzilla vs. Kong. A prime example is the Adult Swim trailer that showcases a quick clay animation version of Rick and Morty playing Godzilla and King Kong, respectively. The most notable crossover, though, was the infusion of Godzilla vs. Kong into the popular free game Call of Duty Warzone, known as the Operation Monarch event. While the Gamespot review notes missed potential, it was undoubtedly a novel marketing move.
Ways for Godzilla vs. Kong 2 to break into the mainstream conscious
Godzilla is such a well-known character that the cinematic version is one of many that you can find across the realms of pop culture. Most recently, Godzilla joined the GigaBash brawler as a playable character. Away from video gaming, though, Godzilla and the upcoming movie could certainly expand into new corners of entertainment as a new theme or feature, sporting the branding to work the marketing angle. A prime area for this could be online casino gaming. With live gaming going big, the variants available at Betway roulette have become numerous, from Real Vintage to Real Spooky.
Where Godzilla, and maybe even Kong could fit in, could be Lightning Roulette, which has a feature of lightning striking to increase the odds on random numbers. It’d be easy to change the lightning feature’s in-studio set to Godzilla, firing down on random numbers for odds boosts. At the same time, Kong could ground-pound to add an additional winning number each round. Alternatively, a standalone simulator could be created, as BETC made for Tom Clancy’s The Division with Collapse. You could rise Titans around the world and see if you could do so in a way that brings about its end even with Kong and Godzilla on watch.
Away from these more hands-on products made for marketing, classic movie promotional events could be tapped into. One of the most famous of these, as Rotten Tomatoes details, was The Blair Witch Project. The team posted interviews with families of the film’s missing protagonists, put up “missing” posters, and truly immersed people in the idea of this being based on a true story. For The Dark Knight, a 15-month investigation, of sorts, was posed to fans, with Cargo Collective showing that fans even phoned numbers that were written in the sky, blending the cinematic world of Gotham with the real world.
While it’d take some doing for a marketing campaign to bring something as audacious as Godzilla vs. Kong 2 to the real world, it can be a fun way for fans to interact with the upcoming movie. After all, the Jurassic World team released the Dinotracker app, which let you track dinosaurs roaming around the real world, following the plot established in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
Godzilla vs. Kong 2 is bound to be a box office hit, offering much of the same fun and thunderous cinematic action that encouraged people to flock to theatres last year. What will be fun to see is how the marketing team amps up anticipation for the rematch.
The next Hollywood Godzilla movie is officially called Godzilla x Kong: Supernova and will hit theaters on March 26th, 2027! Visit the GxK: Supernova page for more information, production updates and everything we know so far!
From Toho, Takashi Yamazaki is directing a sequel to Godzilla Minus One and is currently in development! The next film will act as a direct follow-up and will even include more Monsters! The Godzilla Minus One sequel page is tracking all information on Toho's next Godzilla movie as it becomes available, don't miss an update!
There is also the next season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters on the way, as well as other spin-off Godzilla series in the works at Apple TV!
Furthermore, while not Godzilla related, Legendary have also teamed up with Amazon to produce a live-action Pacific Rim TV series, which is also currently in the works! So many Kaiju-sized projects in the works - check back often for new information on them all!
