 This film was originally produced in 1973 but was not released in  the United States until 1976. A small US distributor, Cinema Shares,  hoped to ride on the popularity of Dino De Laurentiis s highly  promoted production _King Kong (1976)_ (qv). This became especially  apparent in the US poster art, which depicted Godzilla and Megalon  battling each other on top of the World Trade Center towers.