Godzilla and King Kong may get their death match sooner than expected. According to SlashFilm, the ultimate monster mash will be coming to cinemas — and HBO Max — on March 26, 2021, instead of the previous date May 21.
The reason this news is significant isn’t merely because of the change in the release schedule. After all, over the last year or so, the studio changed the release date for Godzilla vs. Kong at least five times. This was in part due to extended post-production and in part because of, you know, the worst global pandemic in the past one hundred years. What is more important here is that Legendary – a studio behind the film – and its distributors at Warner obviously came to agreement about the film’s distribution.
A brief reminder: back in November, Netflix entered negotiations with Legendary about streaming rights for the film, reportedly offering it $200 million. Suddenly, WarnerMedia swooped in with a demand that HBO Max gets streaming rights for Godzilla vs. Kong. Then, in December, we discovered why Warner did this when the studio announced its decision to release its 2021 titles in cinemas and on HBO Max. Over at Legendary, people were furious and worried about how much money they will even make from streaming. This seems to have been settled now. It remains to be seen whether there will be a similar deal for Dune.
