Just as Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong was beginning post production in 2019, the company’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters opened — and underperformed. The movie, which cost $170 million to make, grossed only $386 million and earned middling reviews (42 percent on Rotten Tomatoes).
The movie, which bowed stateside March 31 to $31.6 million, has crossed $400 million globally. It is the top-grossing Hollywood-produced movie released since the pandemic upended the movie business. And it has yet to open in multiple larger markets, among them the U.K., Brazil and Japan. It also marks the second-best performance in the four-movie MonsterVerse franchise, trailing only Kong: Skull Island’s 2017 tally of $566 million.