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Just completed screening one of my two prints of Kong. Quick opinion- fire up the popper 'cause it's going to sell a bunch of corn.

A slow first hour of exposition-but once the crew hits Skull Island, it hardly lets up. Awsome special effects, wonderful music and a roaring good finish.

Don't know what the legs will be but it's got everything a picture needs. Let's see what happens come this weekend.

Hmmmm, I wasn't too impressed. The incredibly long Skull Island footage became boring after awhile. One too many dinosaurs, bugs, etc. Easily could have edited out 30-45 minutes of the Island footage and still had an impact. Yes, the CGI was good, ecspecially Kong, but when it came to anything fast moving it looked incredibly fake. NY city was really neat, the streets, signage, fake looking cars, and a way too cool movie palace. That looked real, but was it CGI???? Dunno. Definitely a concession movie. But, maybe too boring/long for kids. I don't see this film as a repeat customer film. Unlike the Titanic or Lord of the Rings, if ya see Kong once, you will most likely not see it again. Nice remake, too lengthly, which will probably hurt it, but I would recommend it to everyone. The end credits were cool too, nothing fancy, loved the fonts and background.

I saw the start up and it reminded me of NYC as a kid: I'm 55 so I do recall the fedora generation.

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

I watched the movie today in the "city", since I don't get it until the 30th. I liked it and thought the creatures were realistic looking. Those phallic looking things were creepy. I jumped off my seat once.

I don't think any of the actors will get any awards, but the movie should get nominations for visual effects and musical score.

I will watch it again.

we opened it in 2 theatres with a slow start. 30-40 people in each theatre. I expect growth in the biz.

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

We did very poorly for our 6:30PM showing of King Kong last night. Hopefully it'll do better over the weekend.

Opened poorly in our area. With Narnia out selling it in a little over half of them. Not many women showing much interest in it yet.



[This message has been edited by sevstar (edited December 15, 2005).]

$9.7M Opening #21 ALL-TIME Wednesday openings; Below Pokemon...according to listing on boxofficemojo.com

First day sales were below expectations. I expected Thursday sales to drop as they usually do on a Wednesday opener. Was pleasantly surprised that sales went up.

Here is an article of interest about Kong from the NY Daily News!

'Kong' conks out on Day 1



BY ROBERT DOMINGUEZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER


Naomi Watts stars in 'King Kong.'

"King Kong" isn't the king of the box office - yet.
Director Peter Jackson's $207 million remake of the 1933 classic didn't even break the $10 million mark in its first day in theaters.

Opening early Wednesday morning, "Kong" earned $9.7 million in 3,567 theaters nationwide - making it the 21st-best Wednesday opening.

"Spider-Man 2," which holds the record for best Wednesday, made $40 million when it debuted in June 2004.

Universal Studios, "Kong's" distributor, had no comment. But industry analysts expect business to pick up considerably over the weekend.

The grosses "are not up there with some of the lofty expectations, but the bulk of the audience will be coming out on Friday and Saturday," said Gitesh Pandya, editor of boxofficeguru.com.

"Unlike some movies like the 'The Lord of the Rings' [trilogy], there's not much of a built-in audience that needs to see it the first day. There's tons of business ahead for 'Kong.' "

"Titanic," the top-grossing movie of all time with $1.8 billion in ticket sales worldwide, didn't fare particularly well initially, either. It only took in $28.6 million in 2,674 screens during its opening weekend in December 1997.

Box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian said part of the blame for "Kong's" less-than-record-breaking numbers is its lengthy running time - three hours and seven minutes.

"It is a long movie, and that limits the number of showings per day," said Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations.

"But this is a movie that's going to be around a while, and as the buzz builds, so will the audience."

Originally published on December 16, 2005

Narnia is beating Kong in my two theatres and Kong seems not to be getting his big hairy paws under him with good traction. wassup?

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

Customers who I have talked to who have seen Kong liked it. But they also comment on the running time in a negative way. So I think that some what hurts word of mouth. A 3+ hr movie takes some planning for most people. Especially if they are thinking of dinner afterwards.

Narnia is outselling Kong for us also. And other theatres I have spoken with say the same or at least 4 out of 5 did. With the 5th saying it was real close.

The problem with KONG is that it holds little or no appeal for the teenagers who are the biggest segment of the moviegoing audience.

There is always a gang of kids which hang at our house - sometimes as many as 20 or so. To a man they have all said they have no interest in KONG but all seem to like NARNIA.

I had said early in the fall that when the dusts settles NARNIA would end up on top of everything this holiday season. Looks like I am going to be right.

Kong is playing on 5 screens at my freinds multiplex and I was there for two showings at each. Maybe 5-15 each showing only.
It is dying and the main complaint is that it is to long!

Hogwash on length as a reason for folks not seeing this. Harry Potter is over 2 1/2 hours, The LOTR saga were all mostly 3 hours. Titanic was longer than Kong.

I had high hopes for this pic but so far at my place the results have been similiar to elsewhere. Kong at this point is not quite living up to his beastly stature.

I still expect it to pick up over Christmas week when the shopping and bustle is over. But if it doesn't, it doesn't. People are missing a very entertaining movie and well done update of the original.