'Godzilla vs. Kong' pushed back to November 2020

Those hoping for the climactic meeting of Godzilla and King Kong are in for some bad news.

Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures has shifted Godzilla vs. Kong back eight months from March 13, 2020 to November 20, 2020.

Read more: Godzilla: King of the Monsters flops

No official word yet on why, but perhaps they're both not quite match fit just yet.

Directed by horror helmsman Adam Wingard, who made Death Note and the recent Blair Witch sequel, it will pit the two movie monster icons against each other in Legendary's 'monster universe'.

This will be the fourth movie in the series, beginning with 2014's Godzilla, made by British director Gareth Edwards, in which the giant kaiju trampled cities and battled giant winged insects.

It was followed by 2017's Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which emerged earlier this year.

Godzilla vs. Kong will see King of the Monsters star Millie Bobby Brown alongside Alexander Skarsgard, Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry on the bill.

But there's a lot riding on it.

Read more: Godzilla: A fading franchise?

While Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island did decent enough business ($524.9 million and $566 million respectively), Godzilla: King of the Monsters was not a king of the box office.

With a reported budget of as much as $200 million, it made only $386 million in receipts, very likely losing a huge chunk of money, with some analysts reckoning it would have needed $550 million just to break even.

It was also panned by critics.

The new movie will also face another substantial obstacle, as its new release date puts it just two weeks away from new Marvel movie The Eternals, which will be accompanied by the full force of Disney's marketing might.

Starring Angeline Jolie and Richard Madden, the movie franchise which is hoped will fill the boots of the Avengers series will land on November 6, and may still have legs by November 20.