Godzilla (2014) Reviews/Discussion (1 Viewer)

[Jack P]

No one has asked you to do otherwise.

Then maybe showing a little more respect for an opposing POV would be in order.

 

[Tino]

Then maybe showing a little more respect for an opposing POV would be in order.

I'm sorry but what disrespect are you referring to?? You stated your opinion and we stated ours.

 

[TravisR]

Back to Godzilla, I must say I'm surprised at how fast it's dropping. Word of mouth must really be hurting it. It may have trouble hitting $200 million.

I think studios have so inundated and brainwashed the audience with ads for this week's movie that they MUST see, they forget about anything older than a week. If they didn't get to the movie in the first week, they don't go at all because there's another movie that they gotta check out that's opening this week.

Obviously, some movies will have legs but I bet the number gets smaller.

 

[Jack P]

I'm sorry but what disrespect are you referring to?? You stated your opinion and we stated ours.

Hardly. The first post was stating an opinion and I had no problem with that. The second post was condescending ("When I read your comment again I just had to reply to it"). That's the difference.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Okay, let's stop it right now! We don't need emotions running high over King Kong versus Godzilla. People have stated their opinions. Let's move on before we go down a path that's not necessary for anyone.

 

[LouA]

I Liked Godzilla, and was looking forward to the sequels .Based on what I'm reading on this ,thread it's starting to look like even one sequel would be a long shot. I hope I'm wrong about that, since I think I think they could do a lot more with Godzilla in the sequels.

 

[FrancisP]

The question is what Godzilla is likely to get a sequel? The 2014 version or the 1998 version? The fact is that this summer is much more competitive than 1998. The Amazing Spider-man 2 comes out and stumbles in its second week instead of the third week when it was expected to with Godzilla. Then you have The X-Men. I guess Malificent is the hot movie this week.

In 1998, Godzilla was first and Deep Impact was second. In it's second week, something called Hope Floats finished second. In it's 8th week, Lethal Weapon 4 was the only big film that it faced.

The style of this film was to keep Godzilla off-screen for most of the time. It would never happen but it would be interesting to see how a Michael Bey type of Godzilla film would be received.

 

[Radioman970]

^^^ nobody can even pronounce Maleficent.

 

[Tino]

I say Mothra returns in the sequel based on the clues in the first.

 

[dpippel]

Bring it...

 

[RobertR]

I Liked Godzilla, and was looking forward to the sequels .Based on what I'm reading on this ,thread it's starting to look like even one sequel would be a long shot. I hope I'm wrong about that, since I think I think they could do a lot more with Godzilla in the sequels.

You do know the sequel's already been announced, don't you?

 

[Nelson Au]

Which Godzilla film is that black and white promo still from with the three monsters?

 

[Vic Pardo]

Which Godzilla film is that black and white promo still from with the three monsters?

MONSTER ZERO (1965), aka GODZILLA VS. MONSTER ZERO, aka INVASION OF THE ASTRO MONSTERS. Starring Nick Adams and Kumi Mizuno.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Vic! I see that film is included in the Godzilla Collection box set DVD. I guess I was wrong, the series has had more then Raymond Burr as a western actor included in the cast.

 

[LouA]

You do know the sequel's already been announced, don't you?

Yes I do , but I read about the effect of the relatively poor second weeks gross on this thred, and I recalled that a sequel was announced to 1998's Godzilla but was never made. Like I said in my post , I like the new film and look forward to the sequels. I hope they're made!

 

[LouA]

The question is what Godzilla is likely to get a sequel? The 2014 version or the 1998 version? The fact is that this summer is much more competitive than 1998. The Amazing Spider-man 2 comes out and stumbles in its second week instead of the third week when it was expected to with Godzilla. Then you have The X-Men. I guess Malificent is the hot movie this week.

In 1998, Godzilla was first and Deep Impact was second. In it's second week, something called Hope Floats finished second. In it's 8th week, Lethal Weapon 4 was the only big film that it faced.

The style of this film was to keep Godzilla off-screen for most of the time. It would never happen but it would be interesting to see how a Michael Bey type of Godzilla film would be received.

Truthfully I 'd love to see sequels to both Godzilla's. But I think it's kind of late for a sequel to the 1998 film getting made.

 

[Vic Pardo]

Thanks Vic! I see that film is included in the Godzilla Collection box set DVD. I guess I was wrong, the series has had more then Raymond Burr as a western actor included in the cast.

The difference, of course, is that Raymond Burr was added to the film in Hollywood after the fact, while Nick Adams went to Japan to film his part with the Japanese cast and crew. He made two other films in Japan, including FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD. The third, THE KILLING BOTTLE, has never been released in the U.S. and, as far as I know, was never dubbed into English. A fourth film, WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS, was designed as a sequel to FRANKENSTEIN, but for some reason Russ Tamblyn was hired to play the role that Nick Adams would have played. Not sure why Adams didn't play it since it was filmed before he died (in 1968). Kumi Mizuno is the lead actress in all four films. Adams was reportedly well-liked in Japan. Tamblyn was another story.

 

[Malcolm R]

Didn't the Japanese franchise incorporate the 1998 "Godzilla" creature as a faux-Zilla into one of their recent films? Maybe the new series could use the creature in a sequel in some fashion (maybe have the real Godzilla bash the crap out of it).

 

[Radioman970]

Didn't the Japanese franchise incorporate the 1998 "Godzilla" creature as a faux-Zilla into one of their recent films? Maybe the new series could use the creature in a sequel in some fashion (maybe have the real Godzilla bash the crap out of it).

Godzilla 2000 seemed to.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think studios have so inundated and brainwashed the audience with ads for this week's movie that they MUST see, they forget about anything older than a week. If they didn't get to the movie in the first week, they don't go at all because there's another movie that they gotta check out that's opening this week.

Obviously, some movies will have legs but I bet the number gets smaller.

I think that's exactly it.

I also think we now know what one of these movies will do on an opening weekend, when the marketing budget is similarly high and it's playing in theaters everywhere. $90 million, give or take a few, seems to be what you can bank on. Captain America 2, Amazing Spider-Man 2, Godzilla, and X-Men: Days Of Future Past, all about $90 for opening weekend. And that's a ridiculously huge amount of money that studios shouldn't scoff at or take for granted.

But I think they're hoping for more. I think they don't quite get, or can't quite accept, that "The Dark Knight" opening at $150 million, or "The Avengers" opening at $200 million, are rare (if not unique) moments where the cultural zeitgeist matches up with the movie, and it becomes the thing every person (whether or not they're a fan of the franchise) has to see at that moment in time. You can't make an entire business plan around regularly getting openings of that size, because it's not going to happen. (Or if/when it does, it will be because of inflation and other factors, so that it's not the same dollar amount as it is now.)

And in order to make all of these screens available to do these huge openings week after week, movies have to cycle through very quickly. They'll make the quick buck up front, but then that's going to be it. The problem for "Godzilla" may be that their advertising was so effective, they got literally every interested person in to see it that first week. They spent a huge sum to do that, and now there's no one left that's dying to see the movie for the first time.

Even in a format like IMAX, Godzilla is gone. It used to be that an IMAX release would play weeks, if not months, in the same theater. "The Dark Knight Rises", shot with actual IMAX cameras, opened in July 2012, and I was able to see it in IMAX in July, August and September. "Star Trek Into Darkness", shot with actual IMAX cameras, opened in May 2013 and played for a month, so I was able to see it in May and June, but that goes to show how in a year's time, the window had shrunk dramatically. Films released but not shot in IMAX may not have gotten that long of a window in the first place, but in 2012, "The Avengers" got a month in IMAX, and so did "Prometheus". "Godzilla" had two weeks. For the so-called "premium large format" screens, "Godzilla" got even less time -- all of those screens went to "X-Men Days Of Future Past" after Godzilla had been out for only one week.

We're being trained to get out and go to see a movie as soon as humanly possible, and in the rush to make that many seats and screens available so that everyone who wants to see a certain movie on opening weekend can see it, the consequence is that movies don't stay in the theater as long, and that audiences know it. Audiences also know that if they miss it in a theater, it'll be on Blu-ray/DVD/VOD in about three or four months, or even less time if they go with one of those digital pre-releases that are becoming popular, where the digital version is available a month before the physical media version. When I was a kid, it wasn't unheard of to have two or three months to get around to seeing a movie in a theater. Now, if I don't catch it in the first couple weeks, I know my next chance is gonna be the DVD.

The studios love the big opening weekend grosses, but they're getting them at the expense of potential repeat business, while also perhaps unintentionally discouraging people from going to the theater in the first place.