Godzilla: Now With More Monsters?
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We’ve still got 11 months to wait before the new Godzilla movie. Whatever we will do to pass the time? We can watch all 28 Godzilla movies. We can rampage across major cities. Or we can daydream about all the awesome Godzilla merchandise we’ll be able to buy in tribute to our favorite giant radioactive lizard.
Warner Bros. made waves (radioactive waves?) this week at the 2013 Licensing Expo. In addition to the usual T-shirts, statues, and novelties, the President of Consumer Products at WB promises all kinds of awesome stuff, including costumes and action figures of super heroes, wizards, Godzilla, and an “unlikely hero.” Hmm…could it be the wizard? Or maybe Commander Adama?
The anticipation about this movie is causing excited fans to scour descriptions of merchandise to glean plot spoilers. Here’s the line that’s got people talking: “Featuring spectacular creatures, thrilling action, epic battles and a legendary monster, ‘Godzilla’ provides the backbone for a monstrous merchandise offering for fans of all ages and enables compelling cross-category opportunities across mass and specialty retailers.”
Phew! That’s a lot of words to say, “because of this movie, we’re gonna sell a shit-ton of stuff!” But notice the plural on “creatures.” Aha!
Could it be Mothra? Kong? Ghidorah, the three-headed monster? Or maybe they’ll incorporate Mechagodzilla—just think of the merchandising opportunities there!
How different movie advertising is now than it was in 1954! In the original Godzilla (trailer below), Toho Co. Ltd. promises “special effects surpassing American films” and boasts a production budget of 11 billion yen. Using a currency converter and this nifty inflation calculator, that’d be…about $960 million today. Wow. I don’t know if that’s impressive or frightening — kind of like Godzilla itself. I hope Toho was able to sling merchandise!
Personally, I’m most looking forward to having a destroyable Godzilla building set.
