Godzilla (1998)

[BOOYAH SUCKAS]

What was the supposed to be the biggest blockbuster of 1998 turned out to have a rather dissapointing run. While it certainly wasnt a flop by any means, as it made more than 3 times its budget worldwide, it certainly didn't justify the massive year long marketing campaign. Coming off of Independence Day it seemed like Roland Emmerich was on his way to becoming one of the biggest directors in hollywood and the king of disaster movies. But too much of the movie screamed like a Jurassic Park imitator and the special effects were undeniably hokey despite it having one of the largest budgets ever at the time. 

Sony was expecting it to break the OW record but it fell far short, coming in at #8, barely beating Deep Impact. 

 

Thoughts?

[a2k]

Years after JP and after Emmerich did well with effects in ID, the ones here were shockingly poor. The (budget) size didn't matter after all.

[Twelve]

This whole film was just Emmerichs attempt to make his own shittier version of Jurassic Park. It did really poor despite having such a massive marketing campaign.

[SchumacherFTW]

This was the first time I was ever aware of a huge scale marketing campaign, you couldn't move without seeing something of this in 98. Still a rose tinted movie for 6 year old Schu 

[filmlover]

This movie. Oh God.

 

This movie.

 

 

I remember visiting the Miami area at the time and there were obnoxious billboards for this everywhere ("His eye is as big as this sign," etc.). Also seeing it on opening night and the audience booing when the lights came up.

[Brainbug]

This "movie" for one has a misleading title (no Godzilla in this) and really hasnt aged well. 

 

At least Toho had the right answer to this thing:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPxhdo4HDgg

 

 

Edited June 28, 2017 by Brainbug

[dudalb]

Godzilla 1998 ,contrary to popular opinion, did make a good profit, but nowhere near what the studio was expecting. They were expecting Independence Day level numbers and it just did not happen.

[RichWS]

Aging myself a bit, but I vividly remember the disappointment with the opening numbers. To be fair, the advance expectations and hype was some of the most overblown I've ever seen. 

[dxmatrixdt]

one thing I like about this movie and others like it around the same time is that they were being demanded to be made.  With the rising technology after JP, Godzilla was being demanded!!!!  One year prior, Dantes Peak, Volcano, Starship Troopers, and The Fifth Element flopped, while The Lost World set records and the Star Wars SE dominated.  Other creature features in 97, the year before Godzilla and driving awareness were The Relic, Anaconda, Men in Black, Spawn, Mimic, Mortal Kombat, and Alien Resurrection.

[Bishop54]

This movie was bad but they did a good job of not showing him in full until the movie. Had he been seen in full in all his ridiculous glory it would have really turned people off. Also the f/x were awful.

[GroceryGuru]

What I remember about this film was that the studio, Tristar, wanted a record 90% of the box office take at each theater. Usually the theater itself gets more than 10 percent, and that amount grows the longer a film plays. the money collected covers the electric bill and overhead costs leaving concessions entirely for theater profit. The giant footprint billboards saying how big he must be to have feet that big were very clevor and got butts in seats opening weekend for sure. 

[Maxmoser3]

Hype! Pacific Rim leveled hype. Marketing everywhere. But creature features outside of Jurassic Park aren’t blockbusters. People saw the success of Independence Day and jerked off to the massive success of that. But that was an alien invasion film with a rising star, and appealing premise and amazing marketing that couldn’t be replicated again.

 

Godzilla only relies on its fanbase and it made the GA not impressed. 

[SteveJaros]

Yes, 20 years ago right about this time, the Hype Machine was in overdrive for Godzilla, which was expected to dominate the summer like an ID4 (or an Avengers).

 

Let's not be too kind: For this film to make just $132m made it a domestic flop, regardless of whether profits were made up overseas. Justice League from last year is a good comparison. 

 

Everything about it failed. After the trailers (very effective, btw) made Godzilla seem larger than life, in fact, the monster was dwarfed by the Manhattan skyline, looked rather pitiable. Also, the director didn't seem to be able to make him DO anything other than just run up and down the NYC streets, between those tall buildings, knocking out windows with its tail (scary!).

 

Matthew Broderick brought zero heroic power to his lead role, and the dialogue, which IIRC featured dog and "Tatopolous" jokes, was embarrassing.

 

On top of all that, the monster just looked like an inflated backyard gecko, nothing like "Godzilla".

 

The Puff Daddy/Jimmy Page song was the best thing about all this. 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2018 by SteveJaros

[Webslinger]

Guys... the 20th anniversary is coming up. 

 

I can't imagine what the meltdowns would have looked like if box office forums had been around at the time. The movie was expected to break the weekend record pretty much across the board, even with the Wednesday opening. Then it fell short of that weekend record by $28 million. 

 

I loved this movie as a kid (likely due in no small part to the fact that I was getting to watch something that was - *gasp!* - PG-13), but needless to say, it didn't hold up when I randomly re-watched it a few years ago.