Why Godzilla Vs. Kong Is Rated PG-13

Godzilla vs. Kong

The MonsterVerse has already spotlighted Godzilla and King Kong separately, and should everything go according to plan, these two will finally clash towards the end of the year in the appropriately-named Godzilla vs. Kong. There’s still a lot about the crossover that’s left to be revealed, but one thing that’s no longer a secret is the movie’s rating. Like the other MonsterVerse entries, it will be a PG-13 offering.

Below are the following reasons for why Godzilla vs. Kong walked away with a PG-13 stamp from the Motion Picture Association of America (via FilmRatings.com):

For intense sequences of creature violence/destruction and brief language.

This sounds about right. Creature violence and destruction comes to the territory with these kaiju movie, and you can be sure that when these giant monsters are pummeling each other, a few expletives from the observing humans will slip out. Still, it would have been an interesting move if Godzilla vs. Kong had been rated R. The youths would have had a tougher time getting into the theater, but it would have been significantly more brutal spectacle.

Now that Godzilla vs. Kong has been rated PG-13, fingers crossed that this means a trailer is forthcoming. Other than a quick snippet shown last December at CCXP, we haven’t seen any footage from the movie. With this being the first time that Godzilla and King Kong are coming to blows in an American production, it’d be most welcome to get a taste of what this will look like rather than keep imagining it in our heads.

Godzilla vs. Kong was previously supposed to come out in March, a little less than a year after Godzilla: King of the Monsters. However, it was decided back in November to push the movie back eight months, and even if Warner Bros had remained keen on releasing Godzilla vs. Kong in March, the current health crisis would have still necessitated a delay.

In addition to the two eponymous beasts fighting each other (and unlike in 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla, there will be a victor this time around), Godzilla vs. Kong will also see the scientific organization Monarch embarking on a quest to learn about the Titans’ origins, as well as a human conspiracy being uncovered to eliminate these monsters. The cast includes Millie Bobby Brown, Kyle Chandler, Alexander Skarsgård, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Eiza González, Demián Bichir, Shun Oguri, Jessica Henwick, Julian Dennison, Zhang Ziyi and Lance Reddick.

Directed by Adam Wingard, and written by Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein, Godzilla vs. Kong rampages into theaters on November 20, and we here at CinemaBlend will keep you updated about the movie as more news comes in. Learn what other movies are supposed to come out later this year in our 2020 release schedule.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.