The beast cradles his beauty in 'King Kong'. - CONTRIBUTED
LOS ANGELES (AP):
KING KONG was less of a box-office brute than Hollywood expected, taking in US$50.15 million in its first weekend, a sturdy start but unremarkable by Hollywood blockbuster standards.
Universal Pictures' action spectacle about a giant ape took over the top box-office spot from Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which slipped to second place with US$31.2 million and lifted its 10-day total to US$112.5 million, according to studio estimates released yesterday.
THIRD SPOT
Premiering at number 3 with US$12.7 million was 20th Century Fox's ensemble comic drama The Family Stone, featuring Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Keaton, Luke Wilson and Claire Danes in a tale of an uptight businesswoman meeting her fiancé's relations during a holiday visit.
The cowboys-in-love drama Brokeback Mountain, which led the Golden Globes with seven nominations, broke into the top 10 with US$2.4 million playing in just 69 theatres, compared to 3,568 for King Kong.
Hollywood analysts generally expected King Kong to have a debut weekend at least in the US$60 million range. Though it came in lower than expected, King Kong led Hollywood to a solid weekend, with the top 12 movies grossing US$121.2 million, up 22 per cent from the same weekend last year.
Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong did out-gross the opening weekend of his The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of his J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy trilogy that debuted with US$47.2 million. But factoring in a 12 per cent rise in admission prices since that 2001 film's release, King Kong sold about 7.9 million tickets, 450,000 fewer than Fellowship of the Ring.
RECEIVED RAVE REVIEWS
Still, distributor Universal was high on the long-term prospects for the film, which received rave reviews both as a visual-effects spectacle and as a drama about a majestic ape that falls for a woman (Naomi Watts).
The studio hopes King Kong follows the long-term pattern of another three-hour epic, Titanic, which opened with a modest $28.6 million weekend then sailed on to become the modern box-office champ with US$600 million domestically.
Top 10 Box Office listings
1. King Kong, US$50.15 million.
2. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, US$31.2 million.
3. The Family Stone, US$12.7 million.
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, US$5.9 million.
5. Syriana, US$5.5 million.
6. Walk the Line, US$3.6 million.
7. Yours, Mine & Ours, US$3.4 million.
8. Brokeback Mountain, US$2.4 million.
9. Just Friends, US$1.95 million.
10. Aeon Flux, US$1.7 million.
