The Top 5 Monsters from the Godzilla Movies
The coming Monarch: Legacy of Monsters from Apple TV+ has prompted plenty of excitement from fans of the MonsterVerse. The new series also likely has execs at Apple excited over the prospect of millions of Godzilla fans subscribing to their platform to catch this franchise’s very first live-action TV show. But acquiring a massive IP also comes with challenges: how do you effectively market to a huge and established audience when you don’t yet have any data that tells you who this audience is?
Luckily, this is exactly the sort of problem that Ranker Insights was created to solve. For example, Insights tells us that those who love the MonsterVerse are 2X more likely to also love monster movies outside their favorite franchise, including Pacific Rim, Reign of Fire, Cloverfield, and the Transformers franchise. They’re also partial to other modern reboots of cinematic classics, like Zack Snyder’s Day of the Dead, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and the Jurassic World trilogy. And of all four MonsterVerse films released so far, the one they’re most likely to love is 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
But Insights can do more than just tell us about fans of this franchise in genral. We can also use it to zoom into the tastes and preferences of each movie’s, and even each monster’s fanbases. We’re celebrating the arrival of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters by looking at our list of The Best Monsters From The Godzilla Movies (8K votes) to find out which titans this fan base loves most. But more importantly, we’ll also be using Insights to learn about the distinct pop culture proclivities of those who voted up each monster.
#1: King Ghidora
Photo: Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Legendary Pictures
King Ghidora is one of the most recognizable enemies of Godzilla — the three-headed dragon-like monster has appeared in nine movies, including the MonsterVerse entry Godzilla: King of the Monsters. In addition to topping this list, King Ghidora is also #3 on the more general list of The Most Powerful Movie Monsters Of All Time (31K votes), with only Cthulhu and Godzilla ahead of it.
What other monsters do King Ghidora fans love? While some segments of the MonsterVerse fan base prefer to stick to the monsters from Godzilla’s universe, King Ghidora fans enjoy a wide range of different monster movies, including both descendants and contemporaries of the original 1954 Godzilla film. They’re more likely than fans of any other monster in this Top 5 to love the Kaiju, the interdimensional antagonists of Pacific Rim. While they’re 6X more likely to count themselves fans of these more contemporary movie monsters, those who love King Ghidora are 2X more likely than the average Ranker voter to love Gill-Man, better known as the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
#2: Mothra
Photo: Toho
This gigantic lepidopteran is probably the best known Toho monster besides Godzilla, having starred in 16 different films. Mothra is unique among the other monsters in this Top 5 because she’s often portrayed as a benevolent force, acting to protect people rather than destroy them. The character is particularly popular among female viewers in Japan, but her first appearance on American screens was in Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
Fans of Mothra are also more sympathetic to King Kong, Godzilla’s most recent antagonist in the MonsterVerse, than fans of any other monster — those who love Mothra are 4X more likely to also love King Kong. What’s more, those who love the 1964 Japanese movie Godzilla vs. Mothra are 3X more likely to vote up Jurassic Park on our list of The Scariest Giant Monster Movies (36K votes) — a funny preference for a fan base that loves one of the few nonreptilian monsters in the Toho universe.
#3: Mechagodzilla
Photo: Toho
Considered one of Godzilla’s primary arch nemeses along with King Ghidora, Mechagodzilla first appeared in 1974’s Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. This mechanical foe specifically created by an alien race to destroy Godzilla also features not just on Ranker’s most competitive lists of on-screen monsters, but also on several lists of fictional robots. Mechagodzilla is #9 on The Most Powerful Robots In Movie History (4K votes), ahead of RoboCop but behind all three antagonists from the Terminator franchise.
Those who love this colossal mecha are partial to the Cloverfield movies, as they’re 3X more likely to vote up the monster “Clover” on our list of The Most Awesome Monsters & Creatures Of All Time (128K votes). Those who love Mechagodzilla also hold Ghostbusters in high esteem, as they’re 2X more likely to vote up Zuul, the iconic horror-comedy’s demonic antagonist, on the same Most Awesome Monsters & Creatures list. This list also features the better remembered “Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man,” the towering corporate mascot that satirizes the Godzilla movies. But even though the Stay-Puft Man and Mechagodzilla are both, in their ways, imitations of the same radioactive dinosaur, Mechagodzilla fans don’t seem to have any special affection for Ghostbusters’ secondary antagonist.
#4: Rodan
Photo: Legendary Pictures
Much like Godzilla, Rodan is a dormant dinosaur awakened and mutated by the radiation of the atomic bomb. While #4 on this list is certainly an impressive enough ranking on its own, Rodan is the only monster on this list to earn repute from readers for more recent film appearances, ranked #10 on the list of The Best Villains Of 2019 (3K votes). The giant pteranodon appeared in 2019’s King of the Monsters alongside both Mothra and King Ghidora.
Rodan’s presence on the Best Villains Of 2019 list helps to confirm the idea that his segment of the MonsterVerse fan base loves films about monsters, regardless of when they were made or what genre they belong to. Those who voted up Rodan are 4X more likely to vote up Grimmel the Grisly, the antagonist of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, on the same list.
#5: Destoroyah
Photo: Toho
A single, colossal monster that is actually a mutated colony of ancient, microscopic crustaceans is something that could come only from the world of Godzilla. That’s likely why Destoroyah’s appeal appears to exist only within the MonsterVerse fan base — at least for now.
Whereas the other monsters in this Top 5 have fans who love a wide range of monster movies, Destoroyah’s fans prefer to stick to their favorite franchise. They’re 3X more likely to also vote up Mechagodzilla on this list. What’s more, they are the only fan base in this Top 5 with a strong affinity for Spacegodzilla, another, apparently more divisive doppelganger of Godzilla’s. Beyond that, Destoroyah fans don’t have much in the way of enthusiasm for any movies or monstrous characters outside the MonsterVerse canon.