6 Ways Kong Is Better Than Godzilla And 6 Ways He's Not

Bow down to the king — but who? Kong, the King of Skull Island, whose first name is literally "King?" Or Godzilla, the King of the Monsters, who trumps King Kong by making the first syllable of his name "god?" You'll find passionate defenders on both sides of the debate. So much so that the monsters' epic rematch, Godzilla vs. Kong, doubled box office tracking and industry expectations to deliver a pandemic-era best, earning nearly $50 million over its five-day opening while also being available for basically free to HBO Max subscribers. 

Not bad for two characters whose combined cinematic ages are more than 150 years (in the films, Godzilla is millions of years old), making their battle a sort of Kaiju Grumpy Old Men. While their famous feud has taken place twice on the big screen (the first time in 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla), we're not going to debate who would win in a fight — we're wondering which character is a bigger pop culture icon? We'll debate, and you decide. All hail to the king ... but which one? Here are six ways Kong is better than Godzilla and six ways he's not!

Both monsters make bank, but King Kong is bigger monkey business at the box office — at least when it comes to his biggest flicks. King Kong was a hit right out of the gate, earning $10 million in 1933, over $200 million in today's dollars. King Kong's biggest hit, not adjusting for inflation, is his 2017 MonterVerse debut, Kong: Skull Island, which earned $561 million worldwide on a $185 million production budget. Peter Jackson's King Kong remake is arguably even more impressive, earning $550 million worldwide in 2005, roughly $745 million adjusted for inflation, though its $207 million budget and Lord of the Rings-level expectations give this movie an undeserved reputation as an underperformer. 

For a time, Jackson's King Kong was even Universal's biggest hit after the Jurassic Park movies and E.T. (and is still in the studio's top 20). If anything, King Kong has often suffered from too high expectations. In order to plug his King Kong remake, producer Dino De Laurentiis famously boasted, "No one cry when Jaws dies." It was an over-promise to be sure, but the 1976 film still made $90 million worldwide, over $415 million today. Of course, that isn't to say the big ape hasn't bombed, as 1986's King Kong Lives tanked with $4.7 million, and it's also the series' worst movie by far. 

King Kong has officially been in nine films, but The Numbers only has reliable box office data for six. Given the data goes from 1933's King Kong to 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong, there's a lot of inflation to account for. Still, based on these figures, King Kong's box office average is higher than Godzilla's — a $262 million worldwide average across six films versus a $216 million average over nine films. King Kong's average production budget ($114 million) is also lower than Godzilla's too ($122 million), so it may seem like King Kong is therefore a more profitable character. However, this isn't an apples-to-apples comparison. We have more accurate data for Kong's movies because most of Godzilla's films were made in Japan, so their budget information isn't as readily available, which is why The Numbers only has info for nine Godzilla flicks.

Also, the cost of the original 1933 King Kong ($672,000) wouldn't cover the modern-day catering budget, but it translates to $13.6 million today ... which honestly, still wouldn't cover the catering budget. To be fair, Kong's two most expensive movies (Peter Jackson's $207 million remake and the $185 million Kong: Skull Island) cost more than Godzilla's ($160 million for 2014's Godzilla and $170 million for Godzilla: King of the Monsters.) Point being, there's a lot of parity between the characters' box office returns, but there's also no denying that Godzilla vs. Kong is on track to far eclipse Godzilla: King of the Monsters. The X factor? King Kong.

You can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep. Or to put it another way, you can tell a lot about a giant ape by the famous people who think he's awesome. During his nearly a century of cinematic stardom, King Kong has picked up some very famous fans. Stop-motion maestro and special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen said the original 1933 King Kong "changed his life." After seeing King Kong with his mom and aunt, Harryhausen immediately began experimenting with stop-motion like his idol, Kong animator Willis O'Brien. And by 1949, Harryhausen even got to work with him on Mighty Joe Young. 

Harryhausen wasn't the only Kong stan. The big gorilla's most famous fan is Academy Award-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson. King Kong is Jackson's favorite film, and it's the movie that got him interested in filmmaking in the first place. In fact, his 2005 remake is really the biggest, most expensive fan film in movie history. If you really want to see proof of how popular Kong is with famous people, consider King Kong's #41 ranking on the American Film Institute's "100 Years, 100 Movies" list. Obviously, there's a lot of love for the big ape.

Mozart vs. Beethoven, Michelangelo vs. Donatello (the sculptors, not the turtles), Charles Dickens vs. Herman Melville ... how do you possibly compare great artists or the works of art they created? With an arbitrary ranking website, of course! While it may be a stretch to include King Kong and Godzilla on a list with the greatest art and artists ever, remember it's one thing to produce quality work when your topic is heaven itself and another when your topics are giant apes and radioactive reptiles, respectively. 

Both the 1933 King Kong and the original Japanese 1954 Godzilla — not 1956's re-edited, American Godzilla: King of the Monsters — are widely regarded as genre masterpieces ... but which is masterpiece-ier? For that, we have to go to Rotten Tomatoes, which gives Godzilla a 93% critics' score and an 89% audience score. Great numbers ... but less than King Kong, which boasts a near-perfect 98% critics' score, though a slightly lower audience score at 86%. However, the King Kong series has the only 0% in either franchise, with 1986's King Kong Lives, while the Godzilla series has the only 100%, 1995's Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, whose six critics were clearly into it. Both characters have their share of good and bad, but where it matters the most — their original, respective masterpieces — Kong bests Godzilla.

Godzilla inspired an entire genre of film — the kaiju eiga. Or, in layman's terms, "giant monster movies." But as influential as Godzilla was to filmmakers around the world, the fact remains that King Kong was first. Godzilla was released in 1954, two decades after King Kong in 1933. While one giant monster movie influencing another seems obvious (in the same way Star Wars influenced all sci-fi after 1977), the big ape influenced his reptilian enemy in more tangible ways. 

The biggest impact involved Godzilla's longtime special effects director, Eiji Tsuburaya, who once recounted, "King Kong came to Kyoto, and I never forgot that movie. I thought to myself, 'I will someday make a monster movie like that.'" Over 20 years later, Tsuburaya did. It's not a shock that King Kong influenced Godzilla though. Kong is probably the most influential action/sci-fi/fantasy movie ever, eclipsing even Star Wars. Even for those who've never seen the film, its tropes are etched into our cultural psyche. And the giant ape holding the screaming blonde atop the Empire State Building while biplanes swoop by is one of the most iconic cinematic images ever. Godzilla is an influential monster, no doubt, but make no mistake — King Kong inspired Godzilla, not the other way around.

There's a great moment in the American version of King Kong vs. Godzilla in which a scientist claims Kong's brain is about ten times the size of a regular gorilla's while he holds up a marble to represent Godzilla's brain. While we can quibble with the likelihood that a 180-foot-tall reptile could be powered by a brain smaller than a squirrel's, the good doctor's point still stands. King Kong is (probably) smarter than Godzilla. Perhaps this is just our prejudice for our fellow primate, but chimps and gorillas are the smartest animals after human beings. 

Reptiles by contrast are more primitive (there's a reason the oldest part of the human brain is jokingly referred to as "the reptile brain"). You probably will never see a crocodile speaking sign language or a gecko using tools. However, Godzilla is no normal reptile, and in past films, he's solved problems, learned to fly, and even "talked." Still, in Kong and Godzilla's two big-screen encounters, Kong outsmarts Godzilla. Granted, this is a fight, not a chess match, and atomic breath tends to be a great equalizer.