9 Years Ago Today, This Sci-Fi Icon Made a $560M Comeback — And His Story Isn’t Over

Looking back, the 2010s were the decade of the cinematic universe. The idea of a shared universe had never really taken off before, simply because it was always going to be tough to coordinate so many different projects at once; but all that changed after 2008, when Iron Man launched the MCU to popular and critical acclaim. Suddenly shared universes were all the rage, and every studio wanted a piece of the action.

By now, of course, it’s pretty clear most studios lacked the ability to make them work (and even Marvel has struggled in recent years). Most didn’t even get off the startling line, with Sony’s ill-considered Robin Hood cinematic universe essentially DOA, while Will Smith’s hopes of an After Earth universe fell through after the film failed to serve as a launchpad. But, surprisingly, one shared universe has proven a massive success – and a key chapter in its story was told nine years ago today, when one Hollywood legend finally returned.

The Monsterverse’s Kong: Skull Island Helped Make the Monsterverse a Hit

Step forward Legendary Entertainment’s founder and then CEO Thomas Tull, who came up with the idea for a “Monsterverse” after finally regaining the rights to both Godzilla and King Kong. Partnering with Warner Bros., Legendary set about charting a course towards an inevitable Godzilla versus Kong big screen brawl (a 2014 teaser featured concept art with the unforgettable line, “Let them fight.”) 2014’s Godzilla performed well, but the pressure was really on the next release, which needed to establish Kong as a challenger.

Releasing on March 10, 2017, Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ Kong: Skull Island didn’t quite get the critical reception Legendary and Warner Bros. would have hoped for. But it was a hit all the same, grossing an impressive $568.7 million in the global box office against a budget of just $185 million. Featuring all-star casting such as Tom Hiddleston, Samuel Jackson, and Brie Larson, Skull Island served as a primer on some key elements of Monsterverse lore, establishing the organization called Monarch as the sun around which the shared universe would orbit.

Looking back, it’s pretty clear the Monsterverse was following the Avengers model: solo movies establishing the core creatures ahead of a literally titanic collision. Monarch can actually be likened to SHIELD, the MCU organisation who policed superhumans and brought together the Avengers (the subsequent TV show makes the comparison pretty explicit with an overt Agent Coulson analogue). But Kong hadn’t been seen on the big screen since 2005, meaning the film had to re-establish his sense of grandeur and sell Kong for a new generation.

The box office alone says everything. The critics weren’t particularly impressed with Kong: Skull Island‘s plot, but the film focused on the sheer spectacle of seeing Kong on his home turf, setting up Skull Island itself as one of the Monsterverse’s most exciting locations. With Kong triumphant once again, Legendary and Warner Bros. continued the road to 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, which grossed well but struggled a little due to the COVID pandemic; still, the threequel became a hit on HBO Max, as well as the most pirated film of the year. Kong is officially back, and he’s a hit.

Kong: Skull Island’s Story Continues

Other cinematic universes are struggling; even the MCU’s Kevin Feige has had to pivot in recent years, casting Robert Downey Jr. as new villain Doctor Doom in a move to draw in the crowds. But looking back, the Monsterverse is still going from strength to strength. Monarch Season 2 is now streaming on HBO Max, and the premiere kicked things off by heading to Skull Island, with the title sequence teasing a major role for Kong. The special effects and spectacle are literally getting better with every installment, too.

Shared universes are a bit of a gamble. We now know that they require very close coordination, especially if the stories they tell are going to run through several different mediums at once. But Legendary and Warner Bros. have handled this well, building on the success of each film or TV show to set up the next. Kong: Skull Island was a big part of this, establishing so much of Monarch’s lore ahead of a TV show that now continues the film’s story in spectacular form. It also inspired a spinoff anime, available on Netflix.

Godzilla and Kong have met again, in 2024’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and that’s only the beginning. Next year will see them reunited in Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, a story known to feature “SpaceGodzilla.” It seems that, when it comes to the Monsterverse, the sky really is no limit – and that really wouldn’t be the case without Skull Island.

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