For news this week, we have a few things to go over. We had Godzilla-Fest 2020 Online that happened on Monday, a couple of S.H. MonsterArts figures revealed yesterday, and rumor has it that Warner Bros. had talks with AMC about the possibility of their movies going to video on demand on Monday, as well.
Rumor – Warner Bros. And AMC Talk Video On Demand:
On Monday, there was a post on Twitter from Brent Lang, an editor from Variety, claiming that Warner Bros. talked to AMC Theaters about bringing some of their movies over to VOD.
"AMC CEO touts early VOD deal with Universal. Says it has had "significant conversations" with Warner Bros. about a similar deal to allow them to release movies on-demand within weeks of their theatrical debut."
Right now, Warner Bros. stance on their movies releasing theatrically still stands and you can take this as rumor since nobody else has reported on this claim. If true, though, that means that Warner Bros. has become more open to the idea of putting their movies on VOD and that could also include Godzilla vs Kong.
Warner Bros.'s most anticipated spy movie, Tenet, did not do well in the box office in September. AMC, Regal, and CineMark were banking on that movie to bring people back to the movie theaters and the opposite happened. It proved that movie theaters really needed more new movies to attract people to the theaters and not every theater in America and in European countries were open for business.
Currently, Death on the Nile and Free Guy were both confirmed to get delayed, but there is no set date yet and the only movies coming out this year are Monster Hunter and Wonder Woman 1984. We can already safely say that Monster Hunter will bomb in theaters since nobody is excited for that movie based on what I have seen, which leaves only WW84 to fend for itself on Christmas Day.
I am predicting WW84 will have the same issue as Tenet where it will bring in a crowd, but a much smaller crowd than Warner Bros. anticipated for. The reason is not because it's Christmas time. There are plenty of movies that were released on Christmas that proved to due well. It's because most of the movies are getting released on VOD. We have seen Trolls 2: World Tour, Love and Monsters, The Witches, and some others released on a VOD platform and proved to have done a little better than if they were released in theaters since they were readily available. Mulan proved to be the only exception for a movie that failed on VOD due to controversies surrounding that movie. If Mulan wasn't carrying those controversies then I think it would have done better. Coming 2 America and Soul are next to get released on VOD and there is no doubt people will be watching those movies comfortably at home with the fireplace on keeping people warm.
Currently, people are expecting WW84 to get pushed back again. While many excited fans and audience understand, Warner Bros. needs to try something new with these movies whether it is bringing their movies to HBO Max exclusively or making their movies readily available on both VOD and theaters at the same time. It all comes down to money. The more they push back these movies the more money the studio has to spend and the more money they'll lose. There is no question that we are not going to see these movies make the usual amount of money these movies make in theaters for some time.
The only question is how long will Warner Bros. keep their stance on making their blockbuster movies like WW84 and Godzilla vs Kong to be theatrical releases only. For all we know, we may not see these movies until 2022 if they keep this up. 2020 has proven to be the year of VOD and 2021 is not looking very predictable either.
I have been speculating since March that bringing Godzilla vs Kong to HBO Max can be considered a possibility, have given multiple reasons why that could happen as the months rolled by, and I must sound like a broken record by now. There have been many reports hinting that bringing these movies over to VOD is a very real possibility. If the claim by Brent Lang is true and Warner Bros. does announce that they have been in talks of bringing some of their big budget movies over to HBO Max or another VOD platform consider Godzilla vs Kong to be among one of those movies. That is not to say that the movie wont be released in theaters, but Warner Bros. is going to see that the theater experience is not going to be like how it was last year and they need the money now if they want to survive. It is a financial suicide if they continue sitting and waiting any longer.
Rundown Of Godzilla-Fest 2020 Online:
On the night of November 2nd, I did live updates on Twitter for the Godzilla-Fest 2020 Online convention. There were a couple of big showcases that happened during the online convention and some smaller reveals as well.
One of the big showcases is an interview with the creative team behind the upcoming anime series, Godzilla: Singular Point. The whole interview was in Japanese so there is no translation to what they exactly talked about. I am sure though that they talked about the designs of the characters and the designs of the monsters as I did hear those two topics brought up a few times. I am also sure that the story of the anime was brought up, but like I said there is no translation of the interview. If there is a translation, please let me know so I can update this.
The other big showcase was a colorized version of the Gojira trailer presented by veteran Godzilla actor, Akira Takarada. Upon the first showing, my mind was blown and got excited exclaiming TOHO was releasing a colorized version of the movie. But then after I calmed down, I thought about it and realized they didn't give any info on whether it will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray or if there is a release date for the full movie or even a price for the movie. There was a behind the scenes look at the process of how the trailer was colorized, but that was about it. That was when it hit me that this presentation of the colorized version of the trailer was probably the only thing I was going to see. So I had to backtrack my claim about TOHO releasing a colorized version of Gojira. This disappointed a lot of you guys and I'm very sorry for leading you guys into the excitement for something that may not happen. Maybe it will happen one day and we just need to wait until there is more information on the colorized version of Gojira.
Here is the full rundown that happened while I was watching the stream:
• Yuji Sakai livestream on YouTube
• Interview with the creative team behind Godzilla: Singular Point
• Godzilla (1954) trailer was presented in color by Japanese actor Akira Takarada. It is unclear if there will be a DVD/Blu-Ray release of the movie in color yet.
• Chibi-Goji season 2 coming to YouTube on December 2nd.
• Chibi-Goji figurines, picture book, Christmas cake, and pins.
• Hamtaro-Goji apparel line was revealed.
• Godzilla being brought to Virtual Market.
• Godzilla costume shown off for Fall Guys
• Godzilla 2021 bento box
• The "Godzilla Record Project", which is a project that will release products/content in multiple steps with the first step featuring two vinyl record slip mats. The original soundtrack of Gojira will be released on vinyl record as well.
• A sequel to the short film to Gemstone's "G vs G" was announced.
• Shin-Godzilla director Shinji Higuchi gave a tour of the Tsuburaya museum revealing the statue of Shin-Ultraman.
• Two new Shin-Godzilla figures from X-Plus were revealed.
• and a stage performance about how Tanaka and Tsuburaya created the original film.
I believe the only info I did miss is that Tsuburaya Productions did announce Shin-Ultraman will release in Japan some time "early summer 2021". Whether or not everyone else outside Japan will see the film remains unclear at this time.
Two New S.H. MonsterArts Figure Reveals:
Last night during the Tamashii Nations 2020 event, two new S.H. MonsterArts figures were revealed, Zinogre from Monster Hunter and Godzilla 1989 from Godzilla vs Biollante.
Ever since the reveal of the Monster Hunter line, two figures have already been released and Monster Hunter fans and collectors have been more than pleased so far. Quite frankly, I'm kind of jealous. I remember when the Godzilla line first started the figures had a lot of detail and different shades of color and then the quality on the Godzilla figures went downhill starting with the Godzilla (2014) figure. The Monster Hunter line is the kind of detail quality that I wish the Godzilla figures had now.
As for the Godzilla 1989 figure, this is not the first time Tamashii Nations tackled this version of Godzilla in the SHMA line. At one point, there was a sub-line called SHMA "Kou Kyou Kyouku" (aka Light, Sound, and Music). Godzilla 1989 was the first figure to be released in this KKK line. Just as the line stood for, the figure played lots of sounds and music and had a light inside the figure to make Godzilla look like it was glowing. Even though it was a cool gimmick at the time, the main complaint was that it hindered articulation and was bigger than the regular 6" in. Godzilla figures and the Biollante figure. So far, the KKK Godzilla 1989 figure is the only figure in the KKK line. Now, with the rerelease of the Biollante figure coming closer it now has a regular Godzilla 89 figure to be displayed with.
That is all the news for this week. Let me know in the comments section on what your thoughts are on either the rumor of Warner Bros. considering VOD, Godzilla-Fest 2020 Online, or the two figure reveals. Make sure to follow me on my Facebook, Twitter, Minds, and Parler pages to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.