GODZILLA GIVES MOVIEGOERS WHAT THEY WANT

'50s style Godzilla

'Godzilla' gobbled up the box office on its release last week.  Grossing a huge global opening of over $196 million, it crushed all comers and competition.  The Japanese kaiju epic monster tale (which hasn't opened in China as yet) placed Warner Bros. firmly in the top spot as this year box office leader - a sequel is already in the works.

Godzilla first emerged from the ocean depths in 1954 and went on to 'star' in numerous Toho Studio films which included Godzilla rivals Mothra, Rodan, and Ghidorah.  There was even a baby Godzilla, Minilla.  An amphibious reptilian creature, Godzilla is a metaphor of the nuclear age's destructive  consequences and has an 'atomic breath' - a radioactive heat ray that spews from its mouth.

Could Godzilla Really Exist

Baby Godzilla

In this month's issue of Popular Mechanics, an article deals with just that - whether or not a real Godzilla could exist.  Here are the findings:

At 350 feet high (over 30 stories) Godzilla would weigh in at over 164,000 tons.  Have a heart that would weigh 100 tons pumping 530,000 gallons of blood through its humongous body.  Needless to say, Godzilla would have to have very large and very strong bones.  At 20 times greater than the force on T-Rex's bones, Godzilla's leg bones would need to be twice as strong as some titanium alloys.

No actual animal could take the pressure of being so massive, but this is Godzilla - who has radioactive breath and destroys entire cities.  He/she, Godzilla is gender neutral, even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.