He can bust out of ‘escape-proof’ chains, but the Eighth Wonder of the World didn’t shatter any box office records on its first day in theaters. Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong earned $9.7 million on Wednesday, disappointing Universal execs who were hoping for a performance to match the mid-week bow of Jackson’s last epic, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
The final installment in Jackson’s J.R.R. Tolkein trilogy adaptation, The Return of the King opened on a December Wednesday in 2003 and earned more than $34 million on day one before going on to grab $377 million in North America alone. Sony’s Spider-Man 2 still holds the record, however, hauling in just north of $40 million during its Wednesday debut in 2004.
Universal is hopeful that business for Kong will pick up over the weekend, citing as an example DreamWorks’ Shrek 2, which was slow out of the gate but managed a stellar $108 million five-day take. But unlike the svelte, 93-minute cartoon, King Kong is saddled with a three-hour run time, which will limit the number of screenings each venue can squeeze into each day.
King Kong is beating his chest in 3,568 theaters, more thn 100 fewer than last weekend’s champ, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe from Disney and Walden Media. That film opened to $67 million, a realistic number for Kong to topple with its enticing CG animation and other effects work by Weta.
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