King Kong off to a slow start at Box Office
From Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES—Director Peter Jackson’s costly remake of “King Kong,” one of the most hyped movies of the year, started off with more of a whimper than a roar at the North American box office, according to sales data issued on Sunday by its distributor Universal Pictures. The special-effects behemoth sold $66.2 million worth of tickets in its first five days since opening on Wednesday. For the three days beginning Friday, its sales were $50.1 million, enough to propel it to No. 1 at the weekend box office.
Universal said it was thrilled with the opening of Jackson’s rumble in the jungle, given its running time of more than three hours, but industry analysts said they had expected the monkey movie to open nearer $90 million. “It was, realistically, a tough sell, despite the industry and media hype,” said Brandon Gray, president and publisher of online tracking service http://www.boxofficemojo.com. “It’s incredibly tricky to get audiences excited about a movie that doesn’t have a strong human character.”
Universal’s yardstick was Jackson’s 2001 film “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” which also opened on a Wednesday, with $18.2 million, and earned $75 million in its first five days. “King Kong” earned just $9.8 million on Wednesday, a figure that sent shock waves through the industry.

WOMEN FALL FOR ‘KONG’
Universal vice chairman Marc Shmuger said the three-day haul for “King Kong” beat the comparable $44.2 million figure for the “Rings” movie. Additionally, the midweek opening allowed positive word-of-mouth to spread, especially among women — a demographic that had shown little interest in pre-release surveys. By Saturday, 47 percent of the audience was female, Shmuger said.
The industry guesses were “based on ignorance,” he added, since there are few precedents for a film like “King Kong,” which is neither part of a franchise nor based on a literary property. In addition to its running time, which restricts the number of times it can play in a theatre, other handicaps included its release during a busy shopping period when most children are still in school.
Shmuger was optimistic that once holiday distractions were out of the way, the movie would hold up strongly, much like all-time champion “Titanic” did after its relatively modest opening in 1997. “King Kong” also opened internationally, generating $80 million from 55 non-U.S. markets in its first five days.
Although reviews were largely favourable, if a little put off by the sheer excess of the spectacle, the film may have been hindered by “next-to-zero star power” and the random nature of the special effects, said Gray at boxofficemojo. The film stars Naomi Watts in the damsel-in-distress role made famous by Fay Wray in the 1933 original (and played by Jessica Lange in the 1976 remake that Jackson prefers to believe never existed). Also on board the new film were comic actor Jack Black and Adrien Brody. Universal Pictures is a unit of NBC Universal, which is owned by General Electric Co.