Trivia / Godzilla vs. Megalon

• Absurdly Short Production Time: The movie was reportedly shot in three weeks...it shows.
• Bad Export for You:
  • The long awaited official DVD and Blu-ray release by Media Blasters was widely criticized for glitchy mistakes on the picture quality, a lackluster selection of audio tricks (it’s saying something when the Japanese mono track sounds better than the 5.1 Surround sound mix) and a lack of special features (though they would get leaked on certain copies thrown out on the internet later on).
  • The unlicensed Alpha Video DVD was even worse, with a poor pan and scan print of the film and with a terribly mixed English audio track to listen to. It just screams budget buy.
• Blooper:
  • The girlie poster on the driver's side of the truck cab changes between the first scene and the second (then remains consistent).
  • Every known foreign copy has an editing mistake during the ending, in which the protagonists can be seen waiting for their cue to start walking for about a second after the scene begins. Toho's prints of the export version seem to have been conformed to remove this error, as there is a discernible pop in the soundtrack when the cut occurs.
• Box Office Bomb: It was one in Japan in 1973, becoming the first Godzilla movie to sell less than a million tickets. But thanks to a savvy marketing campaign, it became a surprise hit in America three years later.
• Completely Different Title / Market-Based Title: For some reason, the Spanish translators decided to rename Godzilla and Jet Jaguar for this movie, and it was released in Spain as "Gorgo y Superman se citan en Tokio" ("Gorgo and Superman meet in Tokyo"). Ironically, it and the French version haven't seen release on video.
  • Germany got "King Kong – Dämonen aus dem Weltall", or "King Kong - Demons from Space", in which Jet Jaguar was renamed King Kong to most likely cash in on the previous theatrical success of King Kong Escapes ^note (which bared the subtitle "Frankenstein's Son" to cash in on the previous success of Frankenstein Conquers the World.... Contrary to popular belief, Jet Jaguar's renaming is just that; he's not referred to as King Kong wearing a robot suit, as people often claim. Of course, Masato Shimon's song remains intact despite this.
  • Italy rechristened it as "Ai Confini Della Realtà", which happens to be the Italian title for The Twilight Zone. France's "lost" dubbed version also changed the title, to Godzilla 1980.
• Content Leak: A couple months after Media Blasters released their barebones DVD of the movie so Toho could approve of the film’s bonus features, copies of the film with the special features were leaked online for purchase. Whether this was an accident or done on purpose, it ultimately soured the relationship between the two companies as Media Blasters hasn’t distributed any other Toho films since.
• Contest Winner Cameo: Jet Jaguar arose out of a contest held by Toho in late 1972.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: This movie is one of two Godzilla movies licensed by Media Blasters and released under their Tokyo Shock label, the other being Destroy All Monsters. However, an issue regarding both movies has placed vs. Megalon in an awkward situation where the movie is unable to be released despite being rescued for one. The story is that the DVD and Blu-Ray releases of Destroy All Monsters contained bonus features and supplements that Toho didn't approve, which resulted in the releases being cancelled immediately. By the time the releases came out, Godzilla vs. Megalon was already pending a DVD and Blu-ray release, but due to the previously stated issue, the release for that movie was delayed so that Toho could approve the bonus features. To satisfy the fans that were upset that the release was delayed, Media Blasters put out a barebones DVD of the movie that contained no special features and only had the Japanese and English versions of the movie (though some copies the special features were leaked, which in itself is even rarer to get). Media Blasters have stated that they plan on releasing a Special Edition DVD that contains the bonus features, but nothing has come of that so far. In 2019, The Criterion Collection came to the rescue, streaming the film on The Criterion Channel and putting out a Blu-Ray of the film as part of a feature-packed Showa era box set.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: There's a common rumour about the German release of the film, namely that the dub claims that Jet Jaguar is King Kong wearing a robot suit — likely started by James Rolfe's Godzillathon movie reviews. While it is true that some European releases of these movies have very wacky names, and in Germany, Jet Jaguar is really called King Kong, it's just a case of Dub Name Change, and the character is never stated to be anything other than a human-built robot. For the record, Mechagodzilla is also renamed to King Kong in Germany, and this is, again, a simple name-change.
• What Could Have Been: The film was originally only going to have Jet Jaguar and Megalon, but Toho hastily added Godzilla and Gigan to the mix to boost the film's marquee value.

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