King Kong returned to the big screen in 2024's Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The film marks the third King Kong movie in the MonsterVerse and the thirteenth film in the long-running King Kong franchise. If you're looking to dive into the iconic kaiju’s entire filmography, this guide explains how to watch every King Kong movie and TV show in release order. We'll also show you where to stream them online on popular streaming services today.
The King Kong franchise begain in 1933, laying the foundation for more monster characters like Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah. As a result, King Kong (1933) is considered one of the greatest and most influential monster movies ever made – paving the way for further stories about the ape and his home on Skull Island.
A sequel, The Son of Kong, was released nine months after the first King Kong movie. However, the franchise’s history got much more complicated after that, as the rights passed back and forth between studios. Filmmaker Willis O’Brien formulated an idea for King Kong vs. Frankenstein, but John Beck took his idea behind his back and presented it to the Japanese studio Toho, which then reworked the film into King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) without crediting O’Brien, marking the first of many complicated legal dealings regarding the franchise.
By 1976, the franchise had moved back to America with King Kong (1976), the first remake of the original directed by John Guillermin. The film resulted in a lawsuit from Universal Pictures, which sought to prove that King Kong was in the public domain so that it could make its own remake. Since the 1933 movie was novelized and the book's copyright was not renewed, the book version of King Kong was officially declared to be in the public domain. Hence, in 2005, Universal released its own remake, King Kong, with Peter Jackson directing and Andy Serkis as Kong.
Initially, Universal planned a sequel, but at this point, Warner Bros. and Legendary swooped in and secured the franchise rights. The studios soon created the MonsterVerse and introduced Kong to it in Kong: Skull Island, which starred Tom Hiddleston, John Goodman, Samuel L. Jackson, and Brie Larson. The plan was to create a shared universe with multiple major kaiju, so it wasn’t long before Kong was reunited with his old nemesis Godzilla in Godzilla vs. Kong. While Godzilla and King Kong have long been nemeses on the big screen, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) saw them join forces.
Several animated King Kong TV shows have also been made, but the only one that officially ties into the movies is Skull Island, which is canon in the MonsterVerse.
How can I watch every King Kong movie in order?
Here's how to watch all of King Kong’s movies and TV shows in release order, from newest to oldest. This includes streaming details for every movie in the franchise so you can find out which King Kong movies are on Netflix, Prime Video, MAX and every other streaming service in the United States.