King Kong crushes the box office competition

By Joshua Tyler Dec 18, 2005, 21:20 GMT

Early estimates are in, and while the monkey may be a monster, his movie isn't. Peter Jackson's 'King Kong', a remake of the classic 1933 movie, debuted this weekend and captured number one, but did so with box office receipts well below expectations. Still, its $50 million weekend take was enough to earn it the fourth biggest ever December opening, right behind another Peter Jackson movie 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers' and ahead of 'Fellowship of the Ring'.

Maybe that's a sign that we were simply expecting too much from the angry Ape. 'Lord of the Rings' had a built in fan base that 'Kong' doesn't enjoy. 'Narnia' opened bigger last weekend with $66 million but it too had a built in fan base of sorts, Christian groups mobilized by Disney's faith-based marketing campaign. Most experts predicted 'King Kong' to open somewhere in the $70 - $90 million range, but in retrospect maybe a $50 million weekend is more reasonable.

Also figuring in to 'Kong's' final total is that it opened on Wednesday, rather than Friday. With Wednesday and Thursday's U.S. ticket sales added in, the film's made a gorilla-sized $66 million so far, putting 'King Kong' well on its way to making back that massive $200 million plus banana shelled out by Universal to cover its production costs. Next week is Christmas break for a lot of moviegoers, so expect movies like 'King Kong' and 'Narnia' to catch a big second wind.

Meanwhile, last week's number one film continues to do well. 'The Chronicles of Narnia' took the standard 50% second week drop, but still placed as a strong number two in the box office with a $31 million total. The number three spot was occupied by the weekend's other new wide release, 'The Family Stone'. Lurking beneath two box office behemoths like 'Kong' and 'Narnia', it did reasonably well by positioning itself as an alternative to those big-budget, spectacle films. Bolstered by solid reviews and a great cast including Rachel McAdams, Sarah Jessica Parker, Luke Wilson, and Diane Keaton, 'The Family Stone' recorded a respectable $12 million debut.

This was also 'The Producers' first weekend in theaters. The musical movie adaptation of the stage musical which was itself already an adaptation of a Mel Brooks movie debuted in extremely limited engagements. It showed in only 6 theaters and brought in a decent $156,000. That gives it the weekend's second highest per-screen-average. The highest per-screen-average was held for the second week by 'Brokeback Mountain', as it expanded into wider release. Though only playing in 69 theaters around the country, Ang Lee's gay cowboys managed to rope a surprising $2,359,000 weekend total and the number 8 spot in the weekend box office. 'Brokeback Mountain' goes wide next weekend, when we'll find out if it plays as well to general audiences.

Here's a more detailed look at the early estimates for this weekend's top ten earners here in the United States:


Weekend Box Office Top Ten
December 16 – December 18, 2005

1. King Kong - $50,148,000 ($66,200,000) *
2. The Chronicles of Narnia - $31,184,000 ($112,516,000)
3. The Family Stone - $12,725,000 *
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - $5,905,000 ($252,551,000)
5. Syriana - $5,465,000 ($22,322,000)
6. Walk the Line - $3,625,000 ($82,544,000)
7. Yours, Mine, and Ours - $3,415,000 ($45,107,000)
8. Brokeback Mountain - $2,359,000 ($3,259,000)
9. Just Friends - $1,950,000 ($29,441,000)
10. Aeon Flux - $1,675,000 ($23,139,000)

* Denotes new release.

Source: Box Office Mojo