Surprise! Legendary‘s “Godzilla vs. Kong” is getting yet another release date change. However, in this case, audiences will get to watch the latest entry in the Monsterverse franchise earlier than once scheduled. Warner Bros. will move up the film on HBO Max and theaters to March 26 instead of the most recent date that had been etched-in for May 21 according to Deadline.
READ MORE: ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’: Warner Bros. And Legendary Nearing Deal Over Film Release
The popcorn flick directed by Adam Wingard, as the title promise,s will see the king of the monsters, Godzilla, face the giant ape god of Skull Island, King Kong; a special effects bonanza for the ages. Surely the studio hopes audiences get a little more excited for this outing than did for “Godzilla: King of The Monsters,” which underperformed at the box office comparatively and did not get the same positive reaction as the first installment in Legendary’s reboot of the franchise.
The impressive human cast consists of Millie Bobby Brown, Kyle Chandler, Rebecca Hall, Lance Reddick, Brian Tyree Henry, Jessica Henwick, Julian Dennison, Ronny Chieng, Demian Bichir, Eiza Gonzalez, Shun Oguri, and Alexander Skarsgard among others.
This news would suggest that Legendary and WarnerMedia have finally settled their differences on the film’s release and distribution model. WarnerMedia had reportedly blocked a hefty $200 million bid from Netflix to pick-up the monster epic from Legendary, which increased tensions between the production partners concerning its release. It also potentially signals a release date change for Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” director’s cut which is also a big tentpole HBO event set for March, but not given a specific date yet.
You might remember there had been a bit of dust-up between Legendary and WarnerMedia after it was announced the distributor would be using a day-and-date model in 2021. This would include their entire 2021 slate being launched on their streaming service HBO Max and in theaters on the same day. The problem had been that WarnerMedia hadn’t made Legendary aware of this pivot in a speedy fashion leading to a potential lawsuit. At least with “Godzilla vs. Kong,” it looks like a compromise has been reached given this new release.
Reports had suggested that Legendary could end up handling the film’s distribution in China, which should give them a good amount of the foreign box office if the film does well with audiences in the Middle Kingdom.
They also have a distribution deal with WarnerMedia for the Denis Villeneuve adaption of Frank Herbert’s “Dune,” which is still expected to be released in early October, but it is less clear if they’ve ironed out all the issues there. We’ll have to keep an eye on the situation to see if they’ll attempt to exclude any 2021 feature films from the day-and-date model.