This is our Kickstarter, our GoFundMe, our Patreon. This time we will definitely join the fight. And we got free tools in the article you could use.
Godzilla King of the Monsters's box office performance has definitely cast some darkness on the bright future that Legendary's sparse Monsterverse had going. We the fans are going to help.
Right before May 31, talks were of Warners definitely wanting to continue Godzilla after Kong vs Godzilla. Toho dumped a lot of money in an American division. Five years ago, I was told by a source that Godzilla was Warner's answer to the post Harry Potter-void. A great string of films - Pacific Rim, Godzilla, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Shin Godzilla, and Kong: Skull Island have been undone by by the failures of Pacific Rim: Uprising, The Cloverfield Paradox, and to some extent Godzilla King of the Monsters.
Videos like this watch mojo video can get people to think about seeing the film again if they missed something.
Even Japan was full ahead go, with KOTM earning 133% on its opening weekend in comparison to Shin's opening weekend.
Recouping some losses is the realistic name of the game. Warner Brothers is now retooling Kong vs Godzilla to present to audiences an "A+" film. Whether that means going 180 from their Pacific Rim beginnings and make Isben, or something leftfield is any ones guess. Good luck, hopefully if there is work to be done, their work is cut out for them. We can be sure that we are not rewarding what some have seen as slack filmmaking.
Our battle is a financial one, earning the Godzilla license money for Toho, Legendary, and Warner Brothers. Money is nothing to me. I live alone and only make $1000 in a house i own out right. They say vote with your dollar, and since the capitalist game is a an easy logic to follow, lets use economic force to our advantage.
What can we the fans do to help? Well, for starters, let's assume you've already seen the film multiple times. If not, lets admit that though not the best Godzilla film or film ever, an entertaining and true Godzilla film has been produced. Lets enjoy it! And lets experience it once with rocking chairs on a huge screen, another time with 3D glasses, and a couple of times with the regular crowd.
Heck, find reasons to make Godzilla a group activity. Express a want to share this movie with friends, they may be open minded. The key is to be casual about it. Not a know-it-all fanboy. That's coming on too strong.
Getting others to participate is easier than if someone started a grass roots campaign before June 6th. With the film being out, you a living breathing person, can be the voice that people listen to. Not some distant, cold, number on a computer screen or cell phone screen with a ripe red or splattered green tomato behind it.
Now that we have seen the film, we know what kind of film we are dealing with. We can now give the film a context lacking in the $100 million marketing campaign. We can prepare people not for the film they, the studio, or we expected to see, but the film we know they will be seeing. Maybe they preferred 1998 or were burned by 2014 or both - King of the Monsters will be of interest to this film.
Now that we have seen the film, we know what kind of film we are dealing with. We can now give the film a context lacking in the $100 million marketing campaign. We can prepare people not for the film they, the studio, or we expected to see, but the film we know they will be seeing. Maybe they preferred 1998 or were burned by 2014 or both - King of the Monsters will be of interest to this film.
For people my age and older, the last 10 years meant begging a parent or finding the will and time off work to drive to densely populated parts of the country with special art/import theaters for screenings of Godzilla films. Now its a part of the zeitgeist, this cherished icon matters again. And the Americans finally got it right!
Being a fan for now doesn't mean experiencing fandom behind a computer screen at home waiting for the mail man to bring the next figure or special edition blu ray. I can walk out, see a nice diaplay, and as a public act buy Godzilla. For newer fans, enjoy the luxury while you can. Anytime in the future can you see a special screening of anything. This is initial run!
Being a fan for now doesn't mean experiencing fandom behind a computer screen at home waiting for the mail man to bring the next figure or special edition blu ray. I can walk out, see a nice diaplay, and as a public act buy Godzilla. For newer fans, enjoy the luxury while you can. Anytime in the future can you see a special screening of anything. This is initial run!
My local Godzilla Store. Had two atomic blast Shin Gojis. I have one. Someone bought the other!
Have you bought any merch? Though only 8 endcap sized pop-up Godzilla stores were in the US, chances are if you are close to an FYE, you saw something similar but way more cost effective to general consumer economics. There is, like the Titans, way more. Hats, blankets, shirts, music, and toys. Something for everyone!
FYE, Target, Books-A-Million, and apparently Gamestop are selling in store NECA Godzilla figures, including Mothra. The only thing that's better than buying straight from the producer is the non-secondary markets/stores that procure these items. Faster they sell the faster they restock. Say you order a figure straight from NECA, its just one more figure. Say you buy from your local Target, and they sell out, they may very well get a second shipment in of multiple figures as if to fill a aisle shelf. Though different dimensions and mass, the Bandai Creation figures, if memory serves from my time working at TRU, came 6-8 per a box. This means that sub licensors like NECA and Trends International will definitely be voicing their want of a sequel for more merchandise sales. If the newest shipment doesn't sell, any saturation of the market achieved will give less wealthy fans a way to get say a decent NECA figure, when years ago a decent scull for a single mold character with five swivel joints cost just as much as a NECA sculpted-using-the-digital-file-from-the-film figure.
Wal-Mart signed an agreement to sell exclusively the Jakks Pacific figures. For context, Wal-Mart was bitten by this logic once with possibly the best American kaiju film this far - Pacific Rim, which was a deal signed by NECA. Pacific Rim under performed, and NECA's participation in merchandising the del Toro tent pole could be best described as ''holding out for as long as they could". But this marketing, with less collectors market ambitions, is being given a second chance. And the Jakks Pacific figures rock. The 12" Godzilla fulfills anything lacking from their previous large scale Godzilla, including a dorsal fin size true to the film's depiction. Comparable to Bandai's 10" figure. Even better than the Bandai figure and larger than the upcoming NECA is the Jakk Pacific Rodan. While we wait for the super articulated figure, this one looks like a present day successor to the legendary Shogun Warrior relic of old.
And when you are going to the theater, when shopping Wal Mart for Pine Sol, two pounds of ground chuck, and a Jakks Pacific Rodan, if you have any, wear a Godzilla shirt! Your clothes are good spaces for advertising real estate. Look at this mallrat now:
If you don't have any, Hot Topic, Spencers, Journeys, and FYE got your back covered - literally. And long after, you'll have an outward piece of Godzilla that you can bring with you on your day to day travels and tribulations.
Its really that simple, its really that easy. If you need, take an extra shift at work, donate some plasma - I did. I work night shift earning $1000 a month.
I have done all of this, because I believe. I believe Godzilla King of the Monsters to be a good, entertaining film with faults already acknowledged by the studio. I believe Godzilla is a character who, if only to break new ground in ways the Japanese wouldn't due to cultural sensibilities and financial resources, deserves whatever visions into what could only be produced by a line of Legendary Godzilla films. Because I believe that in a world that cannot give up its nukes and finds itself in an Iran-North Korean second Cold War complete with 80's nostalgia thanks to the likes of Stranger Things and Ready Player One, Godzilla will remind us of how to be. Whether its the terror of nuclear power's possible uses to the possibility to even attaining an existence where we can live peacefully in a world where those bombs exist, these films will point the way and possibly give us answers in a time repeating itself.
I have done all of this, because I believe. I believe Godzilla King of the Monsters to be a good, entertaining film with faults already acknowledged by the studio. I believe Godzilla is a character who, if only to break new ground in ways the Japanese wouldn't due to cultural sensibilities and financial resources, deserves whatever visions into what could only be produced by a line of Legendary Godzilla films. Because I believe that in a world that cannot give up its nukes and finds itself in an Iran-North Korean second Cold War complete with 80's nostalgia thanks to the likes of Stranger Things and Ready Player One, Godzilla will remind us of how to be. Whether its the terror of nuclear power's possible uses to the possibility to even attaining an existence where we can live peacefully in a world where those bombs exist, these films will point the way and possibly give us answers in a time repeating itself.
I am reminded of the 80s, when Tomoyuki Tanaka compiled the ideas behind the then notion of an American Godzilla film and came up with THE RETURN OF GODZILLA, which came to America as GODZILLA 1985. At that time, the only significance achieved was a Easter egg in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and a larger relaunch for Raymond Burr's golden age career (he almost bought the American rights before passing). Now the 80's, the Cold War, Nuclear Tension, New Coke, and Godzilla is are back. Time to stand up for what we are.
So as I finish writing the first draft, I am buying a ticket for my 7th viewing of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, complete with some Dr. Pepper and possibly a Snickers. Movie studios want you to be a consumer and buy into their product and the produced licensed from that. So I call that we do that. We will be your profit making market, with a vengeance. Long live the King.
"No matter what happens, Godzilla will live."
-Steve Martin, GODZILLA 1985
