Top 10 Film Industry News Stories of 2005: #7: Kong's Box Office Roar Less Than Mighty
By David Mumpower
December 28, 2005
BoxOfficeProphets.com
King Kong is not a bust per se, but it is most assuredly not performing at the level we have come to expect from Jackson. In point of fact, Kong has earned less money in its first two weeks than the director's last project, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, accrued in its opening five days. So, what went wrong? Is anything even wrong about this performance or are we simply holding the giant CGI ape to higher expectations than the production merits? The answer is that both of these discussion points are valid, and Kong has had issues reaching beyond even those.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy is the first big-budget adaptation of one of the most beloved fiction series of the 20th century. Fans of the epic children's fantasy novels waited with bated breath for the release of each title. After the first one demonstrated that Jackson would hold true to the tone of the literature � that he got it, so to speak � New Zealand's favorite son allayed the only remaining concerns of such zealots. Upon the introduction of each production into theaters, they overwhelmed Fandango with ever-increasing demand for tickets. The literal interpretation of a bum rush occurred. And they were right to do so. Return of the King was honored as Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Oh, by the way, it also earned over $1.1 billion (with a b) worldwide, making it the second-most successful project of all time.
How does a director top this? Jackson might have wanted to get advice on this from the only man who would know, James Cameron. Of course, Titanic's auteur would not be much help in this regard since he has yet to make another movie. Cameron recognized there was nowhere else to go but down, so he's been on semi-permanent vacation ever since. What Cameron had in terms of wisdom and patience, Jackson possesses in terms of boldness and vision. What he might have used up on the Lord of the Rings trilogy is good luck. King Kong hasn't had any of it yet.
The trouble began when opening day box office receipts were reported. Matching the loftiest expectations (BOP's included) would have placed King Kong in the $30 million range. To the shock of pretty much everyone in the industry, Jackson's CGI ape lured in only $10 million worth of consumers. A film with one of the five largest budgets in movie history had an opening day outside the top 15 for 2005. The Exorcism of Emily Rose, a film with less than 10% of the budget of Kong, opened 15% higher. Apologists were quick to note that the Wednesday opening was particularly troublesome during an odd December calendar configuration. Expectations were for normalcy to return over its opening weekend, leading to the sort of box office explosion originally anticipated. Instead, King Kong managed a $50 million total, not a bad number in and of itself, but one that had been dwarfed by the prior weekend's release, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Many analysts had pegged Kong as the #1 film of December, if not 2005. Instead, it made roughly the same amount in five days that Narnia earned in only three. Adding insult to injury, Kong's five-day total was barely half of the amount Return of the King mustered in the same time frame two years prior.
All is not lost, of course. King Kong's release was troublesome from the perspective that it came only five days after one of the other four largest releases of 2005. It was ingenious in that said release anticipated cashing in on the ultra-lucrative late December box office season. This is the single largest box office period of the year. Kong should be able to recover enough that its initial troubles are rendered largely irrelevant, as was the case with the summer release of Batman Begins. It's just not ever going to be what it was expected to be: one of the top three box office hits of 2005. At this point, it's going to be lucky to even recoup its budget domestically. When compared on its own merits, it appears to be a slightly disappointing performer. If we contrast it to Narnia, it's surprisingly playing second fiddle to its less-storied counterpart. If we put it up against Lord of the Rings, Gollum shoots Kong down from the Empire State Building, then swallows him whole.
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