Surprise! Legendary‘s “Godzilla vs. Kong” is getting yet another release date change. However, in this case, audiences will get to watch the latest entry in the Monsterverse franchise earlier than once scheduled. Warner Bros. will move up the film on HBO Max and theaters to March 26 instead of the most recent date that had been etched-in for May 21 according to Deadline.

READ MORE: ‘Godzilla Vs.

Continue reading ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Release Date Moves Up From May To March at The Playlist.

The Russo Brothers haven’t stopped to take a breath after their massive success from “Avengers: Endgame” toppling “Avatar“‘s box office record, they moved directly into making the Tom Holland thriller “Cherry” and are about to begin shooting their $200 million-plus budgeted spy film “The Gray Man” for Netflix with a stellar cast that includes Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jessica Henwick, Wagner Moura, and others. 

Continue reading The Russo Brothers To Direct Millie Bobby Brown In Sci-Fi Movie ‘The Electric State’ at The Playlist.

While it’s certainly not as bad off as Universal‘s Monsterverse (basically dead), Warner Bros.’ attempt at an interconnected monsters universe isn’t facing the greatest narrative either. Today, as rumored for a few weeks now, Legendary Pictures announced it was delaying the fourth film in their Monsterverse, “Godzilla vs. Kong” until November 2020. This move is the third release date shift for the movie, initially set for May 29, 2020, then moved up to March 13, 2020, and now back eight months to November 20, 2020, on Thanksgiving weekend.

Continue reading ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Delayed Until November 2020 at The Playlist.

Welcome to the latest episode of The Fourth Wall – an interview podcast where I attempt to break down the fourth wall of the film industry, getting a behind the scenes look through my conversations with filmmakers, actors/actresses, and other industry professionals. Today’s guest is “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” and “Child’s Play” composer Bear McCreary.

From the age of five, Bear developed an incredible passion for film and film music which started him on the path to becoming a film composer, eventually leading him to become one of the final prodigies of Hollywood legend Elmer Bernstein.

Continue reading Bear McCreary On Making ‘Godzilla: King Of The Monsters’ & ‘Child’s Play’ Reboot Music [The Fourth Wall] at The Playlist.

The box office problems for sequels in North America continues this weekend. Sure, Pixar’s “Toy Story 4” made an incredible amount of money— $118 million domestically—in its opening weekend, but the figure is far down from the early estimates that had the film opening to around $150 million in North America. It’s the largest opening for a “Toy Story” movie ever, and this is excellent news, but that 2019’s summer slump, the fatigue that seems to be setting in with North American moviegoers does seem like it hurt the film a little.

Continue reading ‘Toy Story 4’ Has The Largest Opening For Any ‘Toy Story’ Film, But Still Falls Short Of Expectations [Box Office] at The Playlist.

We’ve talked about it in the review of “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” and it remains true — the Monsterverse franchise is a tough sell. No, not because people are anti-monsters and anti-action. In fact, the reasons that ‘Godzilla 2’ works at all are based solely on the titular lizard and his epic battles. Instead, it’s just difficult to balance the Earth-shattering action with a quality human drama, with one or the other normally suffering.

Continue reading WB Boss Says ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’ Will Likely Be Delayed To Later In 2020 So Studio Can Deliver “An A+ Movie” at The Playlist.

The summer movie season is always going to have some incredible, often record-breaking box office stats. Just this year, we’re seeing that with some great results for films like “John Wick 3,” “Aladdin,” and, of course, “Avengers: Endgame.” Also, every year, the summer brings with it some box office bombs. But it’s rare that a weekend is as dreadful as what we saw this frame, with films like “The Secret Life of Pets 2” and “Dark Phoenix” not only underperforming, but doing it in historically bad fashion, particularly in the case of the latter, the final Fox film in the 20-year “X-Men” franchise.

Continue reading Bombs Away! ‘Dark Phoenix’ Fizzles With Franchise-Worst Opening As ‘Secret Life 2’ Can’t Compete With The Original [Box Office] at The Playlist.

Just like last weekend, it was another jam-packed time at the multiplex. And on this week’s Playlist Podcast, we manage to make our way through a kaiju fight on the way to ma’s and come out on the other end still standing.

On this episode, I’m joined by fellow Playlisters Julia Teti (also Cinemaholics, Zimbio, Girls on Tops, and Film School Rejects) and Will Ashton (also CinemaBlend and Cinemaholics) to dive into this week’s three new wide releases.

Continue reading Diving Into ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters,’ ‘Rocketman,’ & ‘Ma’ [Podcast] at The Playlist.

As expected, Legendary’s latest film in its Monsterverse, “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” trampled the weekend box office competition. Unfortunately, for the studio, the skyscraper-sized lizard didn’t have quite the roar as was expected.

In its opening weekend at the box office, ‘King of the Monsters’ earned an estimated $49 million domestically, which earned the film the top spot (narrowly beating last weekend’s champ – “Aladdin,” which earned $44.5 million in its second weekend).

Continue reading ‘Godzilla 2’ Tramples Box Office Competition But Isn’t Nearly As King-Sized As Expected at The Playlist.

The “Godzilla” franchise has an inherent flaw in its DNA. It’s just really difficult to build a film around a skyscraper-sized lizard that can’t speak and destroys everything in its path. Therefore, filmmakers feel like they have to include human characters to give the film a basic plot, and hopefully, if done right, provide some much needed emotional stakes so that there’s more on the line when you watch the lizard inevitably destroy a city.

Continue reading ‘Godzilla: King Of The Monsters’ Ditches The Human Drama & Doubles Down On Epic Titan Battles [Review] at The Playlist.

Back in 1990, rapper LL Cool J (he wasn’t an actor, yet) had a mega-hit single, “Mama Said Knock You Out,” which featured the artist dressed in boxing gear and threatening to punch people. It was a massive hit for LL Cool J and was used in countless films and trailers for the next decade. Now, almost 30 years later, the song is being used yet again, this time to promote some hardcore monster on monster action in “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.”

READ MORE: Summer Movie Preview: 35 Films You Shouldn’t Miss

At this point, do you really need something else to sell you on the upcoming ‘Godzilla’ sequel?

Continue reading ‘Godzilla: King Of The Monsters’ Final Look: Godzilla Will “Knock You Out” In LL Cool J-Inspired Trailer at The Playlist.

Thanks to Marvel and the ‘Avengers’ films, summer blockbuster season starts in April now, so technically, our summer movie preview is late. That’s ok. This summer is stacked, as usual, and that does not even account for the upcoming Cannes Film Festival which will have plenty of arthouse blockbusters premieres and mainstream movies like the new Quentin Tarantino film. Yes, summer 2019 is jam-packed. There are all kinds of blockbusters, indies, arthouse films, horror movies—many of which we’ve already covered here— and more.

Continue reading Summer Movie Preview: 35 Films You Shouldn’t Miss at The Playlist.

With “Avengers: Endgame” already in the rear-view mirror (thought will no doubt continue to dominate into the new month), it’s odd to believe that the summer blockbuster season is really only just gearing up, with major releases hitting us each week. On top of the blockbuster commotion that is to come with a rather promising slate of high-profile films, there’s also the Cannes Film Festival coming up, which will no doubt give us a glimpse at what to look forward to for the remainder of the year.

Continue reading 12 Movies To See In May: ‘Aladdin,’ ‘Long Shot,’ ‘Rocketman’ & More at The Playlist.

Sometimes, people just like to see monsters smash stuff. It’s what earned “Godzilla” (2014) over $93 million in its opening weekend and what has prompted movies like “Kong: Skull Island” and “Rampage.” The upcoming Godzilla sequel “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” seems to built around one main idea – when it comes to monsters, the more the merrier.

READ MORE: ‘Godzilla’ & The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2019 

The latest addition to cinema’s longest-running franchise sees Godzilla squaring off against a number of colossal fiends, including Mothra (a huge moth monster), Rodan (a gigantic pterodactyl creature), and King Ghidorah (an enormous, three-headed dragon and Godzilla’s arch-nemesis).

Continue reading ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ Final Trailer: More Epic Mayhem, Destruction & Pandemonium at The Playlist.

LAS VEGAS – Warner Bros. had quite a Tuesday afternoon at CinemaCon. They debuted footage for theater owners from Todd Phillips’ “Joker” before the trailer dropped on Wednesday and they ended their presentation with a very scary first look of “It Chapter 2.” In between was a mixed bag. Melissa McCarthy and Will Forte did a “We thought we were at Comic-Con” bit for their comedy “Super Intelligence.” Warner Bros.

Continue reading ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ Promises Lots Of Pretty, Beautiful VFX [CinemaCon] at The Playlist.

Maybe it’s just some ingrained love of big monsters destroying cities, but for some reason, I’m a complete sucker for anything related to Godzilla. So, when the reboot arrived in theaters back in 2014, I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. And even though the sequel “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” hasn’t really explored much in the way of plot in its first few trailers, there’s something majestic and horrifying watching these massive monsters fighting on land.

Continue reading ‘Godzilla: King Of The Monsters’ Trailer: Godzilla Is Our Only Hope In This Upcoming Sequel at The Playlist.

Did you know that, as of 2018, Godzilla has starred in over 30 movies? Can you imagine binge-watching over 30 Godzilla movies in a row? Major props to anyone who’s actually sat down and watched all those movies. You are officially a hero.

To be fair, it feels like Hollywood is forcing audiences to watch the same movie over and over again at times. Viewers expecting “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” to subvert the rudimentary monster movie formula and bestow audiences with an entirely fresh interpretation will more than likely find themselves sorely disappointed.

Continue reading ‘Godzilla: King Of The Monsters’ Trailer: Mothra, Rodan & King Ghidorah Prepare for Battle at The Playlist.

Trailer watching online has become something of a celebrity gossip sport. Will the ‘Avengers 4’ trailer arrive on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday? Oops, it’s changed, sorry, it’s not arriving til Monday. First the trailer usurped the movie itself, and now the date of the trailer has usurped the trailer itself, which is of course just a commercial trying to convince you to see a movie which in some case is a piece of art and other times is a commercial for a larger film, bigger universe or next installment of what the studio really wants you to see.

Continue reading The 20 Best Movie Trailers Of 2018 at The Playlist.

Movie marketing can be a weird thing to celebrate, no doubt. Posters, trailer and all kinds of promotional materials are selling tools explicitly designed to captivate (dupe?) the broadest, biggest audiences into attending your movie. These materials are created to attract the most mouth-breathing-friendly flies which usually means, big, dumb, loud and in the case of many posters, a healthy dose of criminal Photoshop abuse. Sometimes that means an overwrought collage-diarrhea on a superhero poster where it appears that one character is inevitably flatulating out an explosion, or the designer is just visually impaired, and sometimes it’s just the most egregious concept of all time.

Continue reading The 20 Best Movie Posters Of 2018 at The Playlist.

After what feels like a year made up of roughly 5 million weeks (fun fact: the film “Black Panther” was released in 2018! It’s true!), December has rolled around and the light at the end of the 2018 tunnel is in sight. And around these parts, that means that it’s time to roll out the annual smorgasbord of year-end features, looking at the best, and sometimes worst, of the year in film and TV.

Continue reading The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2019 at The Playlist.

To many a casual consumer of Hollywood monster movies, “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” will be seen as a mere warm-up round to the colossal crossover smackdown that is 2020’s “Godzilla vs. Kong.” But for the learned aficionado of Kaiju cinema (the kind who’s already seen the giant ape triumph over the big lizard in 1962’s “King Kong vs. Godzilla”), next year’s multi-monster melee is the real main event.

Continue reading ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ Trailer Breathes Epic Atomic Fire Down On Comic-Con at The Playlist.

Actress Millie Bobby Brown might be known for all things “Stranger Things,” but last year she bagged her first big movie role with a supporting part in “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.” Today, on Instagram, the Netflix star unveiled the first footage of the film. It might not be all that much to look at, but it is the first taste of a movie that’s greatly anticipated and will have a presence at the upcoming San Diego Comic-Con.

Continue reading ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’: Millie Bobby Brown Unveils The First Footage at The Playlist.

Comic-Con isn’t what it used to be. The annual San Diego-hosted hotspot for all things comic book-related was once the official house of all things proudly nerdy and gleefully geeky, but it hasn’t hosted the same reputation it once held. The lines are long. The heat can be unbearable. The walking is endless. The bathrooms are fleeting (and disgusting). And it’s sometimes hard to justify all the time and labor spent on the weeklong trip — especially when there’s a better-than-decent chance the footage or panels you are watching will soon be available (or, more likely, leaked) for anyone and everyone to watch online.

Continue reading Comic-Con 2018 Preview: ‘Aquaman,’ ‘Glass,’ ‘Deadpool 2’ & More at The Playlist.

In case you’re wondering, the franchise that Warner Bros. and Legendary are building around Godzilla and King Kong is officially called the MonsterVerse (yep, capitalized V and all) and for the next installment, they are not messing around. After getting a quick post-credits tease at the end of “Kong: Skull Island,” the rest of the classic creatures are going to come storming into the next picture.

READ MORE: Adam Wingard To Direct ‘Godzilla vs.

Continue reading Mothra, Rodan & King Ghidorah Confirmed For ‘Godzilla 2’ at The Playlist.

While prestigious films make their debut at Cannes, in the basement of the Palais, the marketplace is where new projects are being announced and shopped around. It’s hard to keep to keep up with all of them, but here are some of the latest highlights:

While it’s not the six-film action pantomimes franchise we were hoping for, you do want to see a movie about the world’s greatest mime, right? Well, Jesse Eisenberg will play the legendary French mime Marcel Marceau in the film, “Resistance,” centering on the artist’s involvement in the resistance in the WWII.

Continue reading Jesse Eisenberg, Mackenzie Davis, Carrie Brownstein, Sandra Bullock & More Line Up New Projects at The Playlist.