Posterized: So many Godzilla movies

For this week's monster-themed Posterized, we're doing things a bit differently. In ye olden times, the Godzilla franchise was a mess, internationally speaking, with some films reedited, retitled, and rereleased or out of order. The original Godzilla (1954) actually has three separate versions: Japanese (1954), American (1956), and Italian (1976) and each one of them have different scenes and shapes (the Italian one is colorized) with only the American version adding in the Raymond Burr subplot. Even when the movies weren't chopped up and reconfigured they were sometimes called different things. For instance Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964), which I loved on TV as a kid is also called Godzilla vs. The Thing and that "Thing" of the title ISN'T Mothra so it's all very confusing.

3 very different versions of the same movie for Japan, America, and Italy

Essentially there are 32 live-action Godzilla movies. So we've listed them and then collected some noteworthy Godzilla posters that we found online, whether or not they were official posters. How many of these 32 pictures have you seen?...

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Finally, some options at the movie theater!

What did you see over the weekend? I saw four movies - a fun weekend. FINALLY. It's always better when multiple options of quality arrive instead of every distributor clearing the way for some preordained lame Disney blockbuster.

The charts and a few notes are after the jump...

Weekend Box Office May 31st-June 2nd  🔺 = new or expanded theater counts / ★ = recommended
W I D E	PLATFORM / LIMITED
1 🔺 Godzilla: King of the Monsters $47.7 on 4108 screens *new*	1 🔺 Biggest Little Farm $435k on 275 screens (cum. $1.8)

2 Aladdin $42.8 on 4476 screens (cum. $185.5) 1992 RETRO	2 🔺  The Souvenir $133k on 74 screens (cum. $460k)  REVIEW, PODCAST ★

3 🔺 Rocketman  $25.7 on 3610 screens *new*  REVIEW ★	3 The White Crow $125k on 212 screens (cum. $1.5) PODCAST

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link to the feeling

• Film Doctor UK good interview with a action film storyboard artist
• IndieWire David Ehrlich makes a great case that Oscar needs to change their rules about Original Song. "Cut to the Feeling" from Leap is not eligible (incidentally for the same reason "Come What May" wasn't eligible... originally written for something else and then unused for that something else)
• Variety Morgan Freeman will be this year's SAG Lifetime Achievement Recipient
• NYT and LAT remember the career of movie & television star Jerry Lewis (RIP)

• AV Club more drama for that Han Solo movie. Michael K Williams, currently Emmy nominated for The Night Of, has had his entire part cut out.
• Deadline another new role for Roland Møller (in the action film Skyscraper). The Danish actor is hot hot hot after Land of Mine. You'll understand if you've seen that Oscar nominated picture
• The Guardian we're promised a definitive victor in the forthcoming action film Godzilla vs Kong. But either way audiences probably lose.

TV
• Variety the annual survey of who makes what per episode of hit TV shows. Casts of Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, Modern Family, and Robert DeNiro (in a new series) are swimming in money. Cast of This is Us will surely eventually be but not quite yet.
• Out RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars season 3 is a go... and already filming!
• Variety Peak TV still hasn't peaked. At least in terms of quantity. One executive predicts 534 new series next year so you're not just imagining that it's impossible to keep up
• Coming Soon 'everything we know about Star Trek Discovery'... though can someone explain to me the deal with this. I keep hearing that it'll be on Netflix and that Netflix is distributing. Yet often times and sometimes even in the same single paragraph in various articles it will say "exclusively on CBS All Access" so I'm confused. Anyone?

Off-Screen
Comic Book Resources fun article on that time that the Incredible Hulk could fly in the comics

Was King Kong a Box Office Monster?

What did you see this weekend?

check out that monster-sized beard on KONG SKULL ISLAND director Jordan Vogt-Roberts!

After catching up on TV shows like Big Little Lies and Feud, I went to Kong: Skull Island with a friend. Afterwards I eagerly read Chris's review, nodding a long at most of it. It's an easy-sit with surprising charm (mostly by way of John C Reilly's ad libbing... he seriously saves the movie from its paint-by-numbers blockbuster strategy) but wow was it disposable. Will anyone remember anything about it in a year's time?

And this to build a whole franchise on? Not too many of my audience members stayed for the stinger after the credits but that it was an enjoyable visual tease of other iconic kaiju like Godzilla, Ghidra, and Mothra. While the film opened at #1 it seems likely that Warner Bros was looking for much bigger numbers to launch a whole franchise on. The last installment of Godzilla, for example, opened to over $90 million.  Perhaps by pairing them in Kong vs Godzilla (due in 2020) they can get closer to $100? Box Office charts for the weekend and some related news items are after the jump...

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Good Movies v Terrible Movies

Josh here to talk battles.

Currently yelling in cinemas is Batman v Superman, a dazzling acting showcase about Batman and Superman getting divorced and having a heartwrenching custody battle over their son Billy. Both characters were created in the 1930s and onscreen in one form or another since the 1940s. It's surprising that it's taken this long for the powers that be at Warner Bros to put them in the same movie, and have them spar. The Avengers beat them to it by a blockbuster mile with characters created in the 1960s an onscreen much later. It, too, had its iconic heroes having a tiff even if only ever mildly sparring (until Civil War hits cinemas later this year). There's an audience itch that is scratched seeing two things we know, putting them into the same box and shaking it to see what happens. For Batman v Superman? A 33% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

Let's look as the history other Vs to see if they fare any better. 

Freddy Vs. Jason.
Once Destiny's Child disbanded, Kelly Rowland was not going to let Beyonce be the only break out star, so she did the only thing anyone would do to ensure mega-stardom: appear in a horror movie where the human characters don't matter at all, and still get murdered anyway. The premise isn't that bad; people have forgotten Freddy and forgotten fear so he resurrects Jason to pave the way. But then they get fed up of each other playing with each others toys and THEY want to be the one to impale post-coital teenagers not the other facially challenged undead monster! The execution is as sloppy and lacking in tension as the stomach muscles on the other end of Freddy's machete.
Sequel/Prequel to: Direct sequel to Friday the 13th (1980) and Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). The last film in each franchise before they were both rebooted.
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 41%

4 more battles after the jump

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