Legendary Entertainment’s first theme park attraction, Kong x Godzilla, opens on July 24 at Lotte World in Seoul, marking the studio’s foray into location-based entertainment after several years of development on the project.
“When I joined Legendary nine years ago, that was a big priority for me,” James Go, Legendary’s executive vice president of franchise management, told Variety. “These types of deals take a long time and construction takes a long time as a process, so I immediately started trying to get Legendary into this space.”
“Now is the perfect time for the franchise to bring these major experiential projects to our fans and give them a hands-on experience,” Ngo added. “We’re going into the sixth movie next year, and there’s also a TV show. So the series is really reaching its climax right now in terms of all the different media projects.”
The MonsterVerse has generated more than $2.5 billion in worldwide box office revenue with five feature films, including Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla vs. Kong, and Godzilla x Kong: New Empire. The sixth film, Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, will be released in theaters in March 2027. The series’ Apple TV series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is currently in its second season.
“Godzilla has been around for over 70 years, and the character Kong has been around for 100 years,” Ngo says. “When it comes to our fan base, we have people who knew Godzilla and Kong when they were kids, but now they’re in their 50s, 60s, and even older. Our new films are starting to appeal to younger kids and teens, so our audience base is the most growing and the most advanced of all of our series.”
According to Ngo, Lotte World is undergoing renovation work and the company is working on making the Legend IP the centerpiece of the work.
“Lotte is a great partner in this region and territory,” Ngo said. “Lotte World in particular has been around for a very long time. It’s very well known and loved not only in South Korea but also in the Asian region. This will be the biggest investment for Lotte as a ride in the park. It’s not just a ride, it’s the centerpiece ride of the park and it’s really going to be the main attraction of all.”
“From the moment a guest lines up, they’re being invited to join Monarch,” Ngo added, referring to the series’ fictional organization that tracks giant creatures. “It’s like a human portal where guests can step into this world.”
Guests then board the HEAV, the Hollow Earth Aircraft featured in the film, before encountering Kong.
“Kong really guides them through Hollow Earth and all of its experiences, and at the same time protects them from any dangers that they might encounter in Hollow Earth,” says Ngo. “We have a lot of huge screens and amazing media that we’ve created in collaboration with our partners. We also have physical sets of Titans and animatronics, so it’s massive and massive in scale. The combination of real-world stuff and media working together to enhance the guest experience makes it very immersive.”
Ngo describes the vehicle as part of a larger strategy that spans games, consumer products, and publishing.
“Our games reach consumers on a digital, on-screen level. Our consumer products allow you to physically take the games home and experience them in your home. Our comics and publishing programs allow you to expand your stories and use your imagination to go places not yet seen on screen,” said Ngo. “With location-based entertainment, you can bring users across the world on a physical level and actually put them in the middle of that world. The strategy of being able to be where the consumer is is really completing that cycle for us.”
Go said Legendary’s film division was also directly involved in the development of the vehicle.
“Legendary is very nimble and closely aligned. In fact, the filmmakers sit one floor below where my team and I sit, so we’re talking and running around with them every step of the way,” Ngo says. “They suggest tweaks to certain storylines to better tie into the next movie. They don’t just look at the final product and approve or approve it. They work with us every step of the way and try to tie so many touchpoints into movies and comics. This is becoming a very interconnected world and experience.”
Legendary maintains a dedicated team based in Beijing covering the Asia region, Ngo said.
“The Asia region is very important to many, if not all, of the projects that we work on. Many of our IPs and the types of films that we produce resonate very well within that market,” he says. “For example, MonsterVerse is huge in Asia.”
Ngo assembled the Lotte World ride as a test case for adapting Legend’s characters to a physical space.
“This is going to be the first time it’s going to market, and it’s going to show people how great it would be to have this IP adapted to this format, and that it’s possible,” Ngo says. “The biggest challenge in the past, especially for Pacific Rim and the Monsterverse, was the scale of the characters and the scale of the world. It’s great to experience in location-based entertainment, but it’s also very difficult to do. Now that we can do it this way and it’s incredible, I think people will start to embrace it more in the LBE (location-based entertainment) space.”
Go said South Korea’s wide-ranging entertainment profile was also taken into consideration in the decision.
“Korea is really on the world stage on a lot of different levels, from manufacturing to entertainment to exporting great IP…I don’t think that’s new to us,” Ngo said, noting that Legendary has already worked with Korean entertainment IP and fashion partners in the past. “We believe this opportunity will allow us to gain a stronger foothold in the market.”
Ngo said Legendary has explored location-based concepts for other series in its library, including Dune, Pacific Rim, Detective Pikachu and Enola Holmes.
“It could be a large theme park ride or attraction, or even an entire property, or it could be something meaningful, like a pop-up or dining experience, an escape room or a murder mystery experience,” Ngo says. “I think they all have the IP DNA to move into this space. It depends on timing, where the real opportunities are in terms of location, and what people are looking for in terms of market.” Legendary also plans to launch a new series, Street Fighter, in October this year.
Asked whether the definition of franchise management has fundamentally changed as audiences now expect brands across multiple platforms, Ngo said: “I don’t know if the definition has changed. Geo has had this strategy for decades, so I don’t necessarily think it’s a new concept…We’ve been able to maintain this in the Monster Verse for over a decade, and we’re building to that level with Dune.”
Ngo said he sees Legendary’s position in five years as an extension of the studio’s current status.
On whether he sees Legendary primarily as a film studio or as a broader entertainment company, Ngo said: “I would argue that we’re already there. I think scaling up and publishing more franchises is probably the goal. We have the infrastructure and we’re already working on all of these different areas and franchises to create a great experience for the fans. We’ve always been a very fan-first type of studio. We know what the fans want and we give it to them and we’re happy to give them that.” ”
