Cause for the Godzilla boom in the 90s?

[gatorzilla]

I was reading a couple different topics and this suddenly came to me. What caused the Godzilla boom in America in the 90s? My thought is that it was mainly due to Sony/Tri-Star getting the rights to do an American Godzilla movie/trilogy. That happened in 1992 which the hype for it was huge and after that we get the Trendmasters toys, all the movies getting released on VHS here in America, a book series, a comic book series and many many other merchandise for us. Also we had the constant Godzilla movie marathons on TV. Godzilla was a major thing all the way up until 1998 and then after the failure of GINO thats when the hype and everything seem to die or vanish.

With LP announcing their new American Godzilla film in 2010 ever since then we have had a new major comic book series from IDW, Bandai USA has done more Godzilla toys and we now have SH MonsterArts toys too and the hype for this film has been pretty good even with the little info we have on it.

Godzilla also seemed to have a minor boom from the 60s and 70s with most of the Showa movies coming to american theaters, and a little merchandise and the Marvel comic series. And it was there in the 80s a little too

What do you guys think though? Is an American Godzilla film what caused the boom all through the 90s? With the LP Godzilla are we bound for a second hopefully more permanant boom should the movie succeed?

[Mincecraft]

Kinda similar my topic: "Zilla...". This is a good explanation. If a movie comes to western theatres, hype grows on it, because of its influence. (What America likes, we all like )

[gatorzilla]

^Which is why I think that should the LP American Godzilla turn out to be a good film it would be a huge hit in America and potentially cause a 2nd and more lasting Godzilla boom in America. Look Transformers came from Japan and after those 3 movies (which are widely ridiculed by a lot of people) they were hit in theatres and now are widely popular so why cant Godzilla do the same especially if the new movie is good?

[Tohosaurus]

I don't know that there was really any boom. An American Godzilla film was being attempted to some degree since the 80s. The influx of VHS releases was due to the potential profits since they were related to the big-budget American film (companies do this all the time). The merchandise and TV show are along the same lines. So although all those things happened in the 90s, it heavily circulates around G98 rather than an actual boom. To be sure, Godzilla became more popular due to all of this but I digress. G98 is what did it. Here's to hoping LPG does the same.

[Goji]

I was reading a couple different topics and this suddenly came to me. What caused the Godzilla boom in America in the 90s? My thought is that it was mainly due to Sony/Tri-Star getting the rights to do an American Godzilla movie/trilogy. That happened in 1992 which the hype for it was huge and after that we get the Trendmasters toys, all the movies getting released on VHS here in America, a book series, a comic book series and many many other merchandise for us. Also we had the constant Godzilla movie marathons on TV. Godzilla was a major thing all the way up until 1998 and then after the failure of GINO thats when the hype and everything seem to die or vanish.

The "Godzilla boom" really happened in 1998. In the mid 90's, the Trendmasters toys and Dark Horse comics were out, but other than that, nothing. Godzilla movies were released on VHS very regularly from the early 80's until the late 90's. Those had been common for a long time.

With LP announcing their new American Godzilla film in 2010 ever since then we have had a new major comic book series from IDW, Bandai USA has done more Godzilla toys and we now have SH MonsterArts toys too and the hype for this film has been pretty good even with the little info we have on it.

I think that's more of a coincidence, more than anything. Godzilla may not be as popular as say, Transformers, but he's still a hot commodity when it comes to merchandising. The MonsterArts toys are also Japanese-made, so those don't really count, IMO.

Godzilla also seemed to have a minor boom from the 60s and 70s with most of the Showa movies coming to american theaters, and a little merchandise and the Marvel comic series. And it was there in the 80s a little too

Minor? Godzilla's popularity in this country was at it's peak in the 60's and 70's. In the 60's, all kinds of people went to see these films. There wasn't as much merchandise back then, but that's before merchandising was what it is today. The release of STAR WARS is really when everything changed in regards to that.

What do you guys think though? Is an American Godzilla film what caused the boom all through the 90s? With the LP Godzilla are we bound for a second hopefully more permanant boom should the movie succeed?

While there was a healthy amount of Godzilla stuff available in the mid 90's here in the States, the "boom" didn't happen until '98, when every company known to man was trying to capitalize on the hype.

I'm definitely hoping that with this new film, something similar happens. We can only hope.

[Gyaos]

^ Agreed. I really hope we get the influx of merchandise as we did back in the 90s.

[XxComablack1937xX]

To me Godzilla never had a ''Boom'' but has always at some point been on the verge of having that happen to the franchise.

The Original Godzilla was a success, The Sequel was a major let down an that kinda hurt the franchise just a bit

Afterwards godzilla was plagued with below average sequels, esp after Destroy all monsters... though Godzilla vs Megalon was a success here back in the day... The sequels after didn't really help. Then Godzilla went into retirement for 10 years.

Godzilla 1985 was released in American theater's, i honestly don't know how the crowd reaction was back then but it wasn't a success.. then None of the G-films after were released in American theater's till 1998.

Hype built, it was huge.. that might have been the closest Godzilla ever came to going Boom in the U.S. but then the film was a disaster an that killed a lot of interest in the franchise for many.

There's serious potential there, but Godzilla has never had the chance to reach his full potential in the U.S.... Hopefully LP will bring back to his potential here once there film is released.