As we saw with Universal‘s delay of "Pacific Rim 2," the alchemy behind the decision-making process of making a sequel involves some magical accounting chemistry. Oh sure, box office plays a role, and so too do international sales, home-video receipts, the value of a brand, the possibility of doing even better the next time around, or laying the groundwork for a crossover. It’s the stuff that usually constitutes various meetings and phone calls. However, in the case of upcoming "Godzilla vs. Kong," all it took was the vision of one man, Legendary CEO Thomas Tull.
“I’m juvenile. I wanted to see them fight,” he said at Business Insider’s Ignition conference (via Variety) about why he backed the smash-up movie. Sure, a tongue may have been planted in cheek a bit, but these days, it’s hard not to imagine someone walking into a conference room with a crude drawing of the two monsters staring each other down, and walking out with a greenlight.
I’m sure as we lead into the film’s release in 2020, the chatter from the filmmakers will be much more flowery about why the two monsters should punch each other out, but at the concept’s core, there’s definitely an element of, "Whoa! Wouldn’t it be neat!?" But before they get there, they’ll have to hope audiences like what they see in 2017’s "Kong: Skull Island" and 2018’s "Godzilla 2."