I mentioned this weekend that I wasn't all that thrilled about the big King Kong movie -- well, according to the LAT this morning.
Hollywood has been betting for months that when "King Kong" hit theaters, the action epic would help reverse a nearly yearlong slide in movie admissions. Well, the rampaging 50-foot-tall ape finally has arrived, but like so many other recent movies, "King Kong" is not yet attracting stampedes of moviegoers.
Although writer-director Peter Jackson's remake of the 1933 classic did sell an estimated $50.1 million in tickets in its debut weekend, the film's opening receipts stood well below industry projections. Rival studios and show business prognosticators had said (and even hoped) that Universal Pictures' "King Kong" might gross as much as $100 million in its first five days of release.
But since the three-hour-plus movie started showing early Wednesday morning, its total domestic sales were $66.2 million -- almost exactly the take that "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" generated the previous weekend, in two fewer days.
The unexpectedly sluggish opening for "King Kong" adds to growing fears that U.S. audiences might be forsaking the multiplex: For the first time in more than 40 years, Hollywood by year's end will have recorded declining attendance for three consecutive years.
I have absolutely no desire to see this film. WHile it seems that the reviews have been good, I was expecting lots of King Kong budget and King Kong ego types of references. If I do get out and see amovie, which we have been trying to make happen for awhile now, it will be the new Harry Potter or Walk the Line.
Posted by: xdm | 2005.12.21 at 08:46