In what should come as no surprise to anyone, Warner Bros. is planning a Godzilla sequel following this weekend’s monstrous box office take. The studio refused to even talk about a sequel until they had a chance to see how the audience reacted to the return of the big green lizard. $93.2 million in its opening domestic weekend and $196.2 internationally so far was all the convincing it took.
Now that audiences have proven they want to see Godzilla on the big screen, especially when it is done right, the Godzilla sequel has been greenlit. The idea is simple – Warner Bros. loves money and Godzilla is going to make them a bucket load.
Godzilla / Warner Bros.
Of course, the first thing they need to do is put together the cast and crew. Gareth Edwards excited most monster movie fans when he created his breakthrough debut film Monsters, and some wondered what he could do with more money. He proved what he could do with Godzilla, and it was a rousing success.
There have been complaints online from people who felt they had to wait too long for the action and destruction scenes. I really, really hope the studio does not listen to those people. What made Monsters so good, and what made Godzilla so good, was that there was not just an onslaught of action. That made the actual action pieces mean more. A disaster porn is what Roland Emmerich brought the world with his critically hated Godzilla over a decade ago.
That mistake was not repeated with Edwards, and that is probably why the movie is going to do so well at the box office. It is a smarter movie and one that seems to have finally figured out how to do Godzilla right when it comes to American studios.
Gareth Edwards will likely be back, and he has said that a Godzilla sequel would share the same tone as this weekend’s box office success. With that comment, Godzilla appears to remain in safe hands.