The Hilarious History of King Kong’s Height

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has officially hit theaters, meaning we can all now plunge into Hollywood’s most bombastic cage match of the year thus far, complete with atomic breath, electromagnetic gauntlets, and a guest appearance that brings the big three of the MonsterVerse together against this new threat.

The New Empire is, by all appearances, what happens when you treat the most legendary characters in monster movie history as the pieces of an Avengers movie, the result of which entirely depends on how partial you are to that statement.

In saying that, it’s perhaps appropriate to take a deep dive into the details of our unlikely heroes, as one might with a beloved comic book hero. I therefore present to you the sheer madness that is King Kong’s height.

How tall is King Kong?

The most correct answer is that Kong is about as tall as whoever’s making the film/working on the VFX wants him to be. In the case of The New Empire, he stands at 337 feet tall (or 102.7 meters, or roughly nine school buses stacked vertically), despite being just 104 feet tall in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island. Eat your vegetables, kids!

The fickleness of Kong’s height was even more severe when he was just starting out, though. In the original 1933 King Kong movie, the titular ape’s height entirely depended on what would look best for each scene, meaning he’d be no taller than three grown men stacked together in one shot, while in other shots he eclipsed palm trees by a few orders of magnitude.

In any case, the Kong we’ve been acquainted with since the 2020s is the tallest that the ape has ever been, but try not to get too hung up on the word “official.” It’s only a matter of time before someone else comes along to scale him up or down again.

(featured image: Legendary Pictures)