2021 is going to be a critical year for the continued success of Warner Bros. and Legendary’s MonsterVerse for a number of reasons. The first two installments in the shared mythology both raked in over half a billion dollars each at the box office, but takings dropped significantly for Godzilla: King of the Monsters. A global haul of $386 million was a huge disappointment, especially for a $200 million blockbuster, with the profit margins razor thin.
The entire franchise so far has been building towards Godzilla vs. Kong, and if it fails, then the entire MonsterVerse could cease to exist. Things weren’t looking too promising when the studio ordered extensive reshoots after a disastrous test screening, but Adam Wingard’s movie was said to be in much better shape with the additional footage in place, before it then faced several lengthy delays.
Things got so bad that Legendary were happy to sell the distribution rights to Netflix for over $200 million, but they were blocked by Warner Bros., who then proceeded to send it to their own streaming service anyway. This led to reports that the production company were considering legal action, but the latest news is that the two sides are close to reaching an agreement.
‘Reaching an agreement’ in this case more than likely means that Warner Bros. are putting their hands into their pockets and reimbursing Legendary for footing the majority of Godzilla vs. Kong‘s budget, which is said to be at least $160 million, and it’ll likely still arrive in theaters and on streaming simultaneously. Theoretically, then, if the company isn’t going to post a loss on the epic kaiju showdown, then that should prevent them from trying to drag their issues into the courtroom. That being said, the HBO Max saga in general is far from over.