Godzilla officially holds the record for the longest-running film franchise of all time, but a movie released over 20 years earlier deserves the crown. The Japanese science fiction horror classic debuted in 1954, and was an allegory for the horrors of nuclear destruction that ended WWII only a decade earlier.

The giant radioactive lizard also kicked off the kaiju craze, and spawned dozens of imitators that tried to capture the magic of the original film. Godzilla himself returned in a slew of sequels across the decades, and the franchise has survived several hard reboots and international adaptations.

While the movies in the Godzilla franchise are often hit-or-miss, the popularity of the тιтle character has never waned in over 70 years. Even as ‘Zilla changed from a harrowing monster to a lovable protector of Earth, the movies have remained popular. Furthermore, each new era has added additional wrinkles to the larger Godzilla mythos.

Though the King of the Monsters will likely always hold that тιтle, Godzilla was not the first large creature to appear on the big screen. The ongoing franchise holds the record for the longest in cinematic history, but it wins that crown on a technicality. One giant monster movie predates Godzilla by decades, but doesn’t hold the тιтle.

Godzilla Is Considered The Longest-Running Movie Franchise, But King Kong Came First

The Misunderstood Ape Is One Of Cinema’s First Giant Monsters

Debuting a full 20 years before the beginning of the Godzilla franchise, 1933’s King Kong is one of the earliest examples of a giant monster movie. The Merian C. Cooper classic was perhaps the most important genre movie of the early sound era, and revolutionized the use of special effects on film.

Harry Redmond Jr.’s masterful stop-motion was groundbreaking, and the King Kong still looks impressive nearly 100 years later. The film is a complex exploration of themes like humanity vs nature, and Kong himself is something of a tragic figure. Early monster movies found a humanity in their тιтular villains, and Kong isn’t the real antagonist of the story.

While some of the depictions of the indigenous people of Skull Island are problematic through a modern lens, the film still makes subtle commentary about the popular ethnographic documentaries of the day. The film’s structure has also often been imitated, with Kong being brought back to “civilization” where he ultimately dies in the pursuit of the woman he covets.

King Kong proved to be an overnight sensation, and it quickly became a franchise with the release of Son of Kong in the same year. The rushed follow-up lost a lot of the spirit and creativity of its predecessor, but it did still have eye-catching special effects for a movie from the ’30s.

Sequels and remakes would pop up sporadically across the decades, and like Godzilla, Kong would see his fair share of reboots and remakes. Kong even became a popular figure in Japan, culminating in the ultimate crossover event between the giant ape and Godzilla. King Kong vs. Godzilla begat a wacky sequel, King Kong Escapes.

Why King Kong Isn’t Considered The Longest-Running Movie Franchise

The Kong Movies Are Far Too Inconsistent To Be The Longest-Running Franchise

Despite predating epic franchises like James Bond and Godzilla, King Kong never really stood a chance to win the crown as the longest-running of them all. The biggest issue with the franchise is consistency, and that is due in large part to the complicated ownership history of the character itself.

RKO distributed the original film, but Kong was also leased out to other companies to make remakes and sequels. This means there is no consistent timeline of King Kong movies, and there’s no clear thread that connects them together. In contrast, Godzilla has always been made by Toho, though Warner Bros. currently handles the American movies.

The King Kong franchise is actually more of a loose collection of remakes, with some of the more popular adaptations scoring sequels. It’s never stretched on in subsequent sequels, and the current MonsterVerse is the first time Kong has had any measure of consistency in his lengthy history. Toho’s тιԍнт grip on Godzilla gave the series many of its trademarks.

Another big problem is the timeline of the movies, and unlike Bond or ‘Zilla, Kong has disappeared from the big screen for lengthy stretches. After Son of Kong, the franchise would go on a nearly 30-year break, and there was a more than 40-year gap between American releases.

Even if King Kong does pre-date Godzilla, there’s no denying that the Japanese monster series has truly exemplified what it means to be a franchise. There have been consistent releases for over 70 years, and a loose continuity within the cinematic universe that Kong simply doesn’t have. What’s more, the 1933 movie is entering the public domain soon.