by kpa » Fri Jan 23, 2009 1:05 am
The way I look at it, GODZILLA: FINAL WARS, GAMERA THE BRAVE, and MONSTER X STRIKES BACK were all box office failures in Japan. REIGO is playing the indie circuit so its not going to make a ton of money. And giant monster imports KING KONG (2005) and CLOVERFIELD weren't hugely successful, while THE HOST did poorly.
Toho sees that Japanese audiences areen't turning out for giant monster movies so they've avoided them the past few years. And in 2006 Toho had their best year ever at the Japanese box office... until 2007 surpassed it, and then 2008 topped that.
I guess Toho could always throw us a curveball and suddenly announce a new Godzilla movie, but based on recent box office numbers I certainly wouldn't bet on it. I'm leaning more towards "5 years +" rather than "in the next few years".
I also don't think news has been completely dead on the kaiju front. While Toho and Kadokawa are taking a break, in 2008 alone from Japan there was MONSTER X STRIKES BACK, REIGO, the indie film G, ULTRA GALAXY, and SUPERIOR ULTRAMAN 8 BROTHERS, even the new GODMAN DVD short with Gaira... and that's just productions featuring giant monsters. That's not bad for a genre that's not exactly pulling big numbers these days.
Keith