Summary

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire needs big box office numbers due to high effects budget and marketing.
Monsterverse films typically cost at least $155 million to produce, with box office grosses averaging just under $500 million.
Expect Godzilla x Kong to need a minimum of $300-$400 million at the box office for success based on previous trends.

cast of new and returning Monsterverse characters, both human and Titan.

The effects budget for a CGI-heavy blockbuster like Godzilla x Kong obviously puts some extra pressure on the movie to be a commercial success. Following the success of the comparatively low-budget Oscar-winning Toho film Godzilla: Minus One, there is even more pressure on Godzilla x Kong to be a hit. The latest chapter in the Monsterverse has also seen one of the biggest marketing pushes of any blockbuster in the last year, making it tough to discern just how much money Godzilla x Kong needs to be considered a box office success.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire's Budget Is Likely At Least $150 Million

All the other Monsterverse movies fell within a similar budget margin.

Godzilla and Kong in Godzilla X Kong The New Empire

While the actual budget figures for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire are not yet available, the rest of the Monsterverse can provide a pretty good range for an estimate. Each movie, beginning with Godzilla in 2014, has cost at least $155 million to produce, so it's a safe bet that the budget for Godzilla x Kong is at least that high. However, no movie has reportedly crossed the $200 million threshold, so there is a good benchmark for how much money Legendary has been comfortable putting into the Monsterverse.

Legendary Monsterverse Movies
Movie	Year	Budget	Box Office Gross
Godzilla	2014	$160M	$529,076,069
Kong: Skull Island	2017	$185M	$568,652,812
Godzilla: King of the Monsters	2019	$170-$200M	$387,300,138
Godzilla vs. Kong	2021	$155-$200M	$470,116,094

Even with the critically-disappointing Godzilla: King of the Monsters falling short of box office projections both domestically and overseas, the Monsterverse movies have averaged over $488 million at the box office. That level of reliability may have given Legendary and Warner Bros. the confidence to put more money into Godzilla x Kong. In the case of Godzilla x Kong, it feels safe to estimate its budget around $200 million, knowing that's the high end of the franchise's typical range and that there will be even more kaiju-smashing CGI action on the screen than its predecessors had.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire's Box Office Needs At Least $300 Million To Succeed

The total for genuine profitability is probably closer to $400 million.

As a very general rule, any movie needs to gross at least twice its budget to break even, as marketing costs are typically on par with what the movie costs to produce. 2.5 times its budget typically makes a movie genuinely profitable. Having Godzilla and Kong share the screen worked so well that Godzilla vs. Kong still made over $470 million despite a simultaneous streaming release, so having the two Titans truly team up for the first time ever in Godzilla x Kong should be a recipe for box office success.

Godzilla x Kong's marketing budget, between its many product tie-ins (especially in the gaming space) and guerrilla marketing efforts, will almost certainly match its elevated production budget. Therefore, the lowest end of what Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire needs to be successful is likely $300 million. Knowing that director Adam Wingard has already teased an 8-minute Titan battle that doesn't include any human scenes, it feels safer to take the high end of all ranges, placing the real number for profitability around $400 million.