Whiggles.com Compact
News // Movie Checklist // DVD Collection // Writings and Musings // Other

Friday, December 16, 2005

Disappointing box office for King Kong

Source: BBC News

Peter Jackson's version of King Kong took $18m (£10.1m) worldwide in its first day on release but looks unlikely to set a US record haul.

I wonder if the fact that Peter Jackson released extended editions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy has worked against King Kong at the box office. After all, why would people want to go to the cinema to see what is essentially a work in progress that will probably be superceded by the eventual extended DVD release? Personally I think that The Lord of the Rings has set a really bad precedent where the version released in cinema is essentially nothing more than an over-long trailer for a superior version.

11:40  

4 Comments:

  • I don't think this is true at all, in fact Jackson hasn't even mooted the possibility of releasing an extended edition on DVD. The reason for the lacklustre box office (well, relatively lacklustre performance) is either audiences just don't feel grabbed by a story about a giant ape or don't fancy sitting in the cinema for 3 hours watching said story.

    By RWB, at 14:12  

  • True enough, but regardless of what Jackson has said I do think that a lot of people will, in the back of their minds, suspect that it will get the "extended edition" treatment.

    As for audiences not being grabbed by the story of a giant ape, I do think that attaching "from the director of The Lord of the Rings" should have been enough to sell it to a significant number of mainstream cinemagoers.

    Out of interest, have you seen the film yet, Richard? Personally I'm not going to bother with it, probably for the reasons you suggested (I don't feel like spending three hours watching a CGI ape careering around).

    By Whiggles, at 15:59  

  • No, I haven't seen it yet and although I was thinking of seeing it tonight, I really don't think it's my cup of tea. I might catch it on DVD, but FLIGHTPLAN looks more appealing for this evening's entertainment.

    By RWB, at 13:24  

  • My brother saw Flightplan recently. He said it was very good.

    By Whiggles, at 14:02  

Post a Comment

<< Home