If you walked into Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire hoping for towering monsters throwing each other through cities, the answer is yes — it’s worth watching. Adam Wingard’s 2024 sequel delivers exactly what its title promises: two of cinema’s most famous giants teaming up for 115 minutes of unapologetic spectacle.
Audiences agreed, handing it a 91% Rotten Tomatoes audience score, the best in the entire MonsterVerse franchise, and pushing the film to $572.5 million worldwide — the highest gross in both the Godzilla and King Kong franchises. The caveat is just as clear.
If you want compelling human drama, sharp dialogue, or the emotional weight of something like Godzilla Minus One, this is not that movie.
- Godzilla Kong Review: Table of Contents
- Is Godzilla x Kong Actually Worth Watching?
- What Critics Praised — and Where the Film Falls Short
- The Box Office Story — A Genuine Hit
- Where and How to Watch It
- Common Complaints Viewers Should Know About
- How It Compares to the Rest of the MonsterVerse
- What Comes Next for Godzilla and Kong
- Frequently Asked Questions
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Critics landed at a middling 54% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 5.6/10, and the consensus was nearly unanimous: the Titan battles are terrific, the human storylines are not.
One representative review put it bluntly: “Come to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire for the sheer monster-mashing spectacle — and stay for that too, because the movie doesn’t have much else to offer.” So the verdict depends entirely on what you’re buying a ticket — or a Max subscription — for.
As a monster movie, it succeeds. As a film in the broader sense, it’s thin. The rest of this review breaks down where it shines, where it stumbles, and who should actually watch it.
Table of Contents
- Is Godzilla x Kong Actually Worth Watching?
- What Critics Praised — and Where the Film Falls Short
- The Box Office Story — A Genuine Hit
- Where and How to Watch It
- Common Complaints Viewers Should Know About
- How It Compares to the Rest of the MonsterVerse
- What Comes Next for Godzilla and Kong
- Frequently Asked Questions
Is Godzilla x Kong Actually Worth Watching?
For the average viewer, yes — and the audience data backs that up. The gap between the 54% critics score and the 91% audience score is one of the widest in recent blockbuster memory, and it tells you everything about the movie’s design philosophy.
Wingard, who directed and co-wrote the film, made a deliberate choice to lean into the franchise’s “stratospherically goofy” instincts, as Little White Lies put it, calling it “an action beat-em-up which…
Plays to its primal, calorific strengths rather than opting for anything deeper.” Compare that to its predecessor, godzilla vs.
Kong (2021), which spent considerable runtime on conspiracy subplots and corporate intrigue before getting to the fights. The New Empire trims much of that fat.
Kong gets long, dialogue-free stretches in the Hollow Earth that play almost like a silent film, and when Godzilla and Kong finally share the screen, the action is staged with a clarity and color that many modern blockbusters lack. The simplest test: did you enjoy any previous MonsterVerse entry?
If yes, this one delivers more of what worked and less of what didn’t. If you found the earlier films hollow, nothing here will change your mind.
What Critics Praised — and Where the Film Falls Short
The praise centered almost entirely on the Titan sequences. The Hollow Earth setting gives the film a vivid, alien visual palette, and set pieces like Kong battling through a frozen wasteland or the climactic team-up brawl are genuinely inventive.
The film moves fast for its 115-minute runtime, rarely lingering anywhere long enough to bore. The criticism is equally consistent: the human characters barely register. Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, and Kaylee Hottle do what they can, but the script gives them little beyond exposition delivery and comic relief.
Stevens, playing an eccentric Titan veterinarian, is the only human performance with real personality — and even his character exists mainly to explain plot mechanics. The IMDb user rating of 6.0/10 reflects this split: spectacular highs averaged against forgettable connective tissue.
There’s also an unavoidable warning for viewers coming in with elevated expectations: Godzilla Minus One released roughly four months earlier, won an Academy Award for visual effects, and proved a Godzilla film could deliver both spectacle and devastating human drama. Many critics compared The New Empire unfavorably to it, and the comparison is fair.
If you watch them back to back, the Hollywood entry feels noticeably emptier.
The Box Office Story — A Genuine Hit
Whatever critics thought, the market rendered its own verdict. The film opened to $80 million domestically — the second-best opening in MonsterVerse history and the fifth-best easter weekend opening of all time.
It went on to gross $572.5 million worldwide against a production budget of $135–150 million, making it comfortably profitable and the highest-grossing film in the MonsterVerse. That last point deserves emphasis.
This franchise includes Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), and Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) — and The New Empire out-earned all of them, despite arriving in a theatrical market still softer than pre-2020 norms.
It’s also the highest-grossing entry in the entire 70-year history of both the Godzilla and King Kong franchises. For a fifth installment, that’s a remarkable trajectory; most franchises decline by this point.
Where and How to Watch It
The film is currently streaming on Max, which is the most practical option for most viewers now that the theatrical run has ended. Digital rental and purchase are also available through the usual platforms. There’s a real tradeoff in watching at home, though.
This is a movie engineered for scale — its best moments depend on the sheer size of the Titans reading on screen.
On a phone or small TV, the Hollow Earth vistas and city-leveling brawls lose a measurable amount of impact. If you have access to a large screen and a decent sound system, use them. Conversely, the weak human scenes are easier to forgive at home, where the stakes of your time investment are lower.
A theater ticket for thin storytelling stings; a lazy weekend stream does not.
Common Complaints Viewers Should Know About
Beyond the human-character problem, a few recurring complaints are worth flagging before you press play. First, the plot is genuinely difficult to summarize — it involves a hidden Hollow Earth civilization, an evil ape tyrant, a young Godzilla-like Titan, and an ancient frost monster, all introduced at breakneck speed.
Viewers who want internal logic from their blockbusters will find plenty to pick at. Second, the film assumes familiarity with prior MonsterVerse entries, particularly Godzilla vs.
Kong and the relationship between Jia (Kaylee Hottle) and Kong. Newcomers can follow the action but will miss emotional context.
Third, the tone is aggressively silly — Godzilla curls up to sleep in the Roman Colosseum like a house cat — and viewers expecting the gravitas of the 2014 film or Minus One may experience tonal whiplash.
None of these are dealbreakers if you know what you’re signing up for, but they explain the 5.6/10 critical average.
How It Compares to the Rest of the MonsterVerse
Within the franchise, The New Empire sits in an interesting position: it’s the lowest-rated entry with critics in some respects, yet the highest-rated with audiences and the biggest earner. Godzilla vs.
Kong scored higher with critics (75%) but a lower audience score (91% vs. its 90%-range reception came with smaller box office). The lesson Legendary seems to have drawn is that audience enthusiasm — not critical approval — drives this franchise, and The New Empire was built accordingly: more monsters, more fights, fewer humans.
What Comes Next for Godzilla and Kong
With $572.5 million banked, a sequel was inevitable, and the MonsterVerse shows no signs of slowing down.
The open question is whether future entries continue down the maximalist path or attempt to absorb some of the lessons of Godzilla Minus One’s success — proof that audiences will also show up for monster films with real dramatic substance.
The smart money says Legendary sticks with what’s working: spectacle-first filmmaking with audience scores, not critics, as the north star. For fans of giant-monster cinema, that’s arguably good news either way.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire good?
It depends on what you want. Audiences loved it (91% on Rotten Tomatoes, the franchise’s best), while critics were lukewarm (54%) due to weak human characters. The monster action is widely considered excellent.
Where can I stream Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire?
It is streaming on Max, and available for digital rental or purchase on major platforms.
Do I need to watch the other MonsterVerse movies first?
You can follow the action without them, but Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) provides important context, especially for Kong’s bond with Jia.
How long is the movie?
115 minutes, making it one of the leaner entries in the franchise.
Is it better than Godzilla Minus One?
Most critics say no. Godzilla Minus One offers far stronger drama and storytelling, while The New Empire wins on pure spectacle and monster screen time.
Was the movie a box office success?
Yes — $572.5 million worldwide against a $135–150 million budget, the highest-grossing film in MonsterVerse, Godzilla, and King Kong franchise history.
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